European Parliament trade chief Bernd Lange has cast serious doubt on the EU’s headline promises to spend hundreds of billions on US energy imports and boost European investment there, warning the commitments are impossible to deliver.
He called the pledge to buy $750 billion worth of US oil, gas and nuclear energy “totally unrealistic”, adding that it is “not possible” for Brussels to force EU firms to channel $600 billion into the country over the next three years.
Both promises are central to July’s EU-US framework agreement, which has subjected most EU exporters to a minimum 15% levy on goods shipped to the US.
“Personally, I think it’s totally unrealistic,” Lange said about the energy pledge. “I see no possibilities to realise this – and I also have my doubts whether the United States will be able to produce such an amount of oil and energy.”
The veteran MEP added that there was “no possibility to coordinate or to dictate companies to invest in the United States”. “[The EU] can support a little bit with subsidies or with some other normal industry policy measures, but this is not possible,” he said.
Lange’s comments are widely backed by analysts, who note that the EU’s investment and purchasing pledges cannot be legally enforced by Brussels.
The bloc purchased $76 billion worth of American fossil fuels and invested $150 billion in the US in 2024, according to Reuters – far short of the new commitments.
Speaking to MEPs later on Wednesday, Sabine Weyand, director-general of the European Commission’s trade division, noted that the pledges were based on the “aggregation” of private firms’ intentions and expected demand.
“This is not a commitment by the EU or by the Commission because we don’t have that money, and we don’t buy energy, nor do we make investments,” she said.
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