In an interview published in Die Welt on Monday, European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni believes the European Union needs to negotiate with Russia over the price of natural gas.

“There is a proposal for EU countries to purchase natural gas together, but it’s not that easy,” he said and emphasized that even though the European Union has vast experience in jointly obtaining vaccines against the coronavirus, natural gas supplies ‘are not vaccination against COVID-19’.

“And [President of Russia Vladimir] Putin is not Pfizer [U.S. company]. We need to negotiate with North African countries, Norway and first and foremost with Russia,” Gentiloni said.