Israeli Energy Minister Karine Elharrar plans to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and other top officials on Wednesday to discuss exporting gas to Europe.
Egyptian officials will include Oil and Natural Resources Minister Tarek El-Molla and European Union Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson to prepare a memorandum of understanding on natural-gas exports from Israel and Egypt to Europe, reported i24News.
Energy Ministry officials have held talks in recent weeks with E.U. officials regarding the sale of gas to Europe, which would be transferred through a gas pipeline to Egypt and then on to Europe.
The European Union is seeking to decrease its reliance on Russian gas following the invasion of Ukraine, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday.
“The Kremlin has used our dependency on Russian fossil fuels to blackmail us,” said von der Leyen in a speech at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, reported AFP.
“Since the beginning of the war, Russia has deliberately cut off its gas supplies to Poland, Bulgaria and Finland, and Dutch and Danish companies, in retaliation for our support to Ukraine.”
