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News from Brussels
Donald Trump lauded Athens on Wednesday for siding with Washington in its opposition to an International Maritime Organisation (IMO) mandate for clean shipping fuels – a politically sensitive matter that caused turmoil in Brussels last year.
“The US–Greece relationship is stronger than ever,” Trump said in a letter sent to the new Greek ambassador to Washington, highlighting progress Athens has made across a number of areas, including defence. “We appreciate Greece’s courage in abstaining on IMO’s adoption of the Net-Zero Framework.”
On energy, Trump was pleased with Greece’s decision to abstain from an IMO vote last October on global rules governing the type of fuel global shipping will use in the future, the so-called Net-Zero Framework.
At that meeting, Washington had threatened to sanction any countries or officials who voted in favour of the deal, which would have promoted hydrogen and e‑fuels as an alternative to dirty bunker fuels, at the expense of natural gas.
The vast majority of EU countries, along with China, supported the deal. The Americans, however, forced a decision to postpone the vote for one year – with effective support from Greece and Cyprus who abstained while all other EU countries opposed the move.
Greek media report that Athens’ stance was viewed in Washington as a sign of consistency and reliability.
With the vote that was supposed to be a rubber stamp for a provisional agreement now postponed until the autumn, the head of the IMO told Brussels earlier this month that the EU would need to adopt a more pragmatic approach to bring the Americans on board.
In Brussels, however, pro‑Green Deal voices with the European Commission’s energy department are resisting the new official policy of renegotiating the deal in an effort to reach a compromise with Washington.
Gas exploration
Meanwhile, Greek Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou told Skai TV on Wednesday that, if gas reserves in the Mediterranean prove commercially exploitable, the country’s energy needs could be met for the next 30–40 years.
“It could be a huge source of public revenue that could fund the country’s social policy,” the minister said.
US energy giant Chevron signed exclusive lease agreements with Greece on Monday to explore hydrocarbon resources in four offshore blocks around the Peloponnese and the island of Crete.
Euractiv reported earlier this month that the Trump administration has shown growing interest in the eastern Mediterranean, with Chevron and ExxonMobil having already struck deals with all key regional players – Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and Libya.