The European Union and the United States are to increase co-operation on energy issues in a bid to reduce European dependency on imports of Russian energy.

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Ernest Moniz, the US energy secretary, and Günther Oettinger, the European commissioner for energy, are to meet in Brussels on Wednesday (2 April) to discuss how the US can assist the EU.

The meeting follows yesterday’s EU-US summit at which the issue of energy independence dominated discussions. “This entire [Ukraine] event has pointed toward the need for Europe to look into how it can diversify its energy sources,” said US President Barack Obama.

The EU imports around 32% of its gas and 35% of its oil from Russia – a dependency that has coloured the EU’s response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Last week, after a discussion of what action to take against Russia, the European Council asked the European Commission to draw up “a comprehensive plan for the reduction of EU energy dependence” by June. On Monday (24 March), the leaders of the G7 nations agreed that their energy ministers should meet soon to discuss Europe’s energy security.

According to a report issued last week by Bruegel, an economics think-tank, replacing the 130 billion cubic metres of natural gas imported from Russia would be difficult, but not impossible, within a year. Bruegel found opportunities for stepping up domestic gas production and it said that Europe had greater capacity to increase imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The EU wants the US to increase its exports of LNG, but US law permits targeted energy exports only to countries with which the US has free-trade agreements.

Obama told Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, and José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, that until a free-trade agreement in signed, the US can authorise more licences for export into the open market.

Barroso said: “We don’t expect this gas to be earmarked for any specific market, we are believers in free trade.” “There is potential still to increase more of these licences, but we are not relying just on that. We have to do our homework here in the EU.”

Obama said: “We’ve already authorised export of as much natural gas each day as Europe uses each day. But it’s not going to Europe directly, it’s going to the world market. The question is whether through our energy ministers and highest levels we can find ways that we can accelerate this process of diversification.”

The US has become an energy exporter because of its exploitation of shale gas through hydraulic fracturing over the past ten years. In an apparent reference to shale gas, Obama said: “The US is blessed with additional energy sources that have been developed with new technologies.”

He added that “it would be useful for Europe to look at its own energy assets as well as the US’s”. “Every possible energy source has some inconveniences or downsides,” he said.

The European Council said that member states would show solidarity if one or more member states suffered sudden disruptions in energy supply.

It also agreed to speed up work on energy efficiency so as to reduce energy demand, and on developing “renewable and other indigenous energy sources”. But the renewed attention to energy security could trigger fresh tensions between member states over the possible use of domestic supplies of hydrocarbons. The UK’s energy minister Ed Davey has been urging the swift adoption of emission reduction targets for 2030 so as to spur investment in domestic energy production. But eastern European governments are suspicious that emission reduction targets might restrict their ability to exploit coal and shale gas.

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