European leaders ask Obama to allow increased exports of US shale gas

EU seeks to break Russian stranglehold on energy supplies but US president says Europe must step up its own fracking

European leaders on Wednesday asked Barack Obama to share the US’s shale gas bonanza with Europe by facilitating gas exports to help counter the stranglehold Russia has on the continent’s energy needs.

At an EU-US summit in Brussels, Barack Obama’s first visit to the city in office, the impact of Vladimir Putin’s seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula loomed large, affecting transatlantic relations in various ways from defence spending to energy policies and trade talks.