The United States is ready to place further orders of natural gas and even shale gas "on the market", but for this to be truly feasible, negotiations on the bilateral free trade and investment agreement between the EU and the United States must be closed (Ttip). This was announced by the president of the United States, Barack Obama, on the occasion of the final press conference of the EU-US summit in Brussels. "The United States is ready to provide additional energy sources" to those already agreed, notes Obama. The federal government, in light of the Ukrainian crisis, has already granted new licenses, and others could be added shortly. The problem is understanding this 'short' in what time terms it will translate. What is certain is that it will need to be discussed on the US side and included in the TTIP agreement. “Once the agreement is signed, it will be easier to trade natural gas and liquid gas”. At a political level, the White House tenant specifies, it is "understanding how to speed up the process" of negotiating and introducing new quotas of natural resources, intended "for the market and not for private companies", he makes clear. Just as he clarifies that despite the good will of the overseas partner, the United States will not make any concessions. "I have no intention of signing laws that undermine consumer protection or environmental protection standards."
The condition set by Obama is not quite what the European Union expected, which nonetheless welcomes US overtures positively. "It is good news that the United States wants to put natural gas and shale gas on the market", commented the president of the European Commission, Josè Manuel Barroso. This will allow Europe to "reduce its dependence on places with complex situations", he explains without mentioning Russia, a country with which the EU still has strong economic and commercial ties and against which it has decreed sanctions due to the crisis in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea by the Moscow authorities. Already "next week" the energy ministers of the EU countries will meet to begin evaluating what and how to do in this area. Not only. “Our teams – continues Barroso – will meet next week to discuss energy cooperation between the European Union and the United States”.
