Qatar threatened to cut EU LNG supplies over sustainability law, letter shows
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Qatar has threatened to cut gas supplies to the European Union in response to the bloc's due diligence law on forced labour and environmental damage, a letter from Qatar to the Belgian government, seen by Reuters, showed.
Qatar is the world's third-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), after the United States and Australia. It has provided between 12% and 14% of Europe's LNG since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
In a letter to the Belgian government dated May 21, Qatari Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi said the country was reacting to the EU's corporate sustainability due diligence directive (CSDDD), which requires larger companies operating in the EU to find and fix human rights and environmental issues in their supply chains.
"Put simply, if further changes are not made to CSDDD, the State of Qatar and QatarEnergy will have no choice but to seriously consider alternative markets outside of the EU for our LNG and other products, which offer a more stable and welcoming business environment," said the letter.
A spokesperson for Belgium's representation to the EU declined to comment on the letter, which was first reported by German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
The European Commission also received a letter from Qatar, dated May 13, a Commission spokesperson told Reuters, noting that EU lawmakers and countries are currently negotiating changes to the CSDDDD.
"It is now for them to negotiate and adopt the substantive simplification changes proposed by the Commission," the spokesperson said.
Brussels proposed changes to the CSDDD earlier this year to reduce its requirements - including by delaying its launch by a year, to mid-2028, and limiting the checks companies will have to make down their supply chains.
Companies that fail to comply could face fines of up to 5% of global turnover.
Qatar said the EU's changes had not gone far enough.
In the letter, Kaabi said Qatar was particularly concerned about the CSDDD's requirement for companies have a climate change transition plan aligned with preventing global warming exceeding 1.5 celsius - the goal of the Paris Agreement.
"Neither the State of Qatar nor QatarEnergy have any plans to achieve net zero in the near future," said the letter, which said the CSDDD undermined countries' right to set their own national contributions towards the Paris Agreement goals.
In an annex to the letter, also seen by Reuters, Qatar proposed removing the section of CSDDD which includes the requirement for climate transition plans.
Kaabi is also chief executive of QatarEnergy. Qatar Energy gas has long-term supply contracts with major European companies, including Shell, TotalEnergies and ENI.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Politico
35 minutes ago
- Politico
Europe's Future Depends on Confrontation, Not Compromise
So far, Europe has not been able to mount an effective response to the threat from Russia, because to do so requires an entirely new, and bold, paradigm for European governance. Instead, we have seen European countries floundering, taking scattershot actions in the direction of their goal, with no real appetite for confrontation. The history of sanctions imposed on the Putin regime over the course of the war in Ukraine is a perfect illustration. Eighteen tranches of sanctions have been signed into law, and yet Putin is still able to wage his war, maintain the offensive on the battlefield, and engage in business with his international cronies. There is still plenty of room to inflict economic damage on the regime, even after all these rounds, because none of the sanctions were designed to deal a decisive financial blow. They are exemplars of the incremental approach to policy-making that the EU embodies, one that aims to nudge the adversary to the negotiating table gently. Of course, this kind of approach does not work on a dictator; indeed, it only feeds their aggression. Another example is the 1 million 155-millimeter artillery shells that were supposed to be sent to Ukraine. Half a year later, Europe had to admit that a union of 27 countries was unable to produce or procure that amount. To add insult to injury, Russia announced that North Korea had provided 1 million shells from its own stockpiles. One of the poorest nations in the world had, apparently, out-performed the most prosperous continent in supplying ammunition to its wartime ally. In the absence of European leaders willing to accept authorship for its new path forward, the continent's future might very well be written in Moscow. If Putin were to attack a NATO country that is also a member of the European Union, that would shake the foundations of European unity like nothing before. And so it is worth asking whether a Europe that is unable to defend its own people can have any meaningful future. A meeting held after the bombing of a European capital to discuss a compromise resolution would serve only as the tombstone for the European project itself. Even if the worst-case scenarios do not materialize, the Union's current ineffectiveness has already become crippling. Could today's Europe have the vision and ability to create something like the Schengen Area or the monetary union? Can it meaningfully enlarge if deadlock eventually reduces it to the status of a mere spectator in the war against Ukraine, the hybrid war against Moldova, or the non-military takeover of Georgia? The inescapable conclusion is that the EU is risking irrelevance and evaporation unless fundamental changes are made to the Treaty itself. This is obviously a monumental task, but after witnessing so many bottlenecks and breakdowns in the current system we at least have a clear picture of what the necessary changes would need to look like. And the basic proposal isn't even new. In 2017, German and French leaders floated the idea of a 'multi-speed Europe,' proposing the most fundamental overhaul of the framework of the EU to date. Had it not been for the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia's war on Ukraine that followed, this proposal could have evolved into a more vocal debate on the regionalization of the Union. This idea still has the potential to make a comeback, particularly in the Nordic-Baltic region, where countries are actively seeking stronger security and defense integration, and where the Russian threat is clearly understood. Meanwhile, parts of Western Europe are already diverging in interests from those in the North. And in the illiberal bloc, Hungary and Slovakia are eagerly awaiting elections in Czechia, hoping a new government will join their anti-European, pro-Russian ranks.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Strategy Could Buy as Much as 7% of Bitcoin Supply, Says Michael Saylor
Bitcoin treasury company Strategy's co-founder Michael Saylor said on Friday that the Nasdaq-listed firm could end up holding upwards of 7% of the leading cryptocurrency's total supply of 21 million coins. But Saylor, who pioneered the Strategy's Bitcoin treasury plan, said that the company wouldn't aim to buy all of the digital asset because he wants "everyone else to have their piece," in an interview with CNBC. "I don't think we'll get all of [the Bitcoin]," said Saylor. "I don't think in the range of 3-5% or 3-7% is too much." "We wouldn't want to own all of it—we want everyone else to have their piece," he added. Strategy—formerly MicroStrategy—currently owns a little over 3% of the current 19,900,346 supply of Bitcoin. Only 21 million BTC will ever be minted, with the last coin expected to be created in the year 2140. The Tysons Corner, Virginia-based firm is the world's biggest corporate holder of Bitcoin, with 628,791 digital coins worth $72 billion at today's BTC price of $114,692. The company first started buying Bitcoin in 2020. Acquiring 7% of the total-ever Bitcoin supply would give the company 1.47 million BTC, currently valued at about $169 billion. Strategy struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic as inflation depleted its cash pile, so the firm went into survival mode in August 2020, pivoting from software development to accumulating Bitcoin. Saylor, who was Strategy's CEO at the time, has since called Bitcoin the supreme asset because it is scarce, and urged other companies to buy it to preserve capital. Strategy's share price was down more than 6% in Friday trading to trade below $380, the first time it has fallen below that threshold since early July. But the stock is up over 2,488% since the company's first Bitcoin purchase in August 2020. Strategy Reports $10 Billion Q2 Profit, Plans to Raise $4.2 Billion to Buy More Bitcoin Strategy now buys and holds Bitcoin, and investors buy its stock—MSTR—to get exposure to the cryptocurrency without having to hold it themselves. The company issues debt to fund its purchases. Saylor said in a second-quarter Thursday earnings call that the price of Bitcoin could still drop by 80% to 90% and the company would be able to handle the drawdown without selling its BTC. Myriad users broadly believe that Strategy will not dump any Bitcoin in the coming months, giving the firm a less than 8% chance of selling any BTC before the end of 2025. (Disclosure: Myriad is a product of Decrypt's parent company, DASTAN.) Strategy Stock Price Could Nearly Double as Bitcoin Treasury Aims to Dominate Market: Benchmark Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer on Friday raised the firm's price target for MSTR to $705, an 85% increase from its current share price. A number of smaller Nasdaq-listed companies have adopted the Bitcoin treasury plan. But some experts have warned that the crypto play can't help every company, and is inherently risky. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Germany's Merz: will negotiate steel export quotas with US
BERLIN (Reuters) -German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday said the European Union will negotiate with the United States on steel, focusing on quotas that can be exported without too high tariffs, after the two sides struck a trade deal last month. The EU's trade deal with Trump in July was greeted with a mix of relief and anger, with tariffs set at 15% for most products but negotiations continuing for certain sectors, including steel and aluminium, which carries tariffs of 50%. The task now is to work out the "fine print," Merz said in the city of Saarbruecken. "This will particularly concern quotas that we can then export without being burdened with excessive tariffs." Merz described the agreement as "painful" for the entire European industry but said the EU was not in a position to trigger a full-blown trade dispute. "There would have been only losers, and the biggest losers would probably have been us, the Europeans." Sign in to access your portfolio
