Returning to Russian fuels would be a strategic mistake for the EU, Commission chief says

Strasbourg, 11 March (CTK) - Returning to Russian fossil fuels amid the current crisis in the Middle East would be a strategic mistake, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a speech to MEPs in Strasbourg today. As long as the European Union imports a significant share of its fossil fuels from unstable regions, it remains vulnerable and dependent, she said.

The Commission chief also addressed calls to scrap the emissions trading system, ETS. Without the system, the EU would be even more vulnerable and dependent, von der Leyen said. The bloc needs the emissions trading system, but it must be modernised, she added.

“Thanks to the steps we have taken in recent years, Europe is now much less exposed to dependence on fossil fuel imports. That does not mean, however, that we are immune to price shocks; energy markets are global,” von der Leyen said, noting that supply disruptions in the Persian Gulf region affect prices around the world.

She said that since the start of the conflict, gas prices had risen by 50 percent and oil prices by 27 percent. “In euro terms, just ten days of war have already cost European taxpayers an additional three billion euros in fossil fuel imports. That is the price of our energy dependence,” she added.

She stressed that the EU has energy sources originating in Europe: renewables and nuclear power. Their prices had remained unchanged over the past ten days. “Yet some are arguing in the current crisis that we should abandon our long-term strategy and even return to Russian fossil fuels. That would be a strategic mistake. It would make us more dependent, more vulnerable and weaker,” von der Leyen added.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has long been critical of the EU emissions trading system, EU ETS. He says that emissions allowances have become the subject of speculation and that the bloc is losing competitiveness against other regions because of them; he also claims that Czechia is losing out as a result. Babiš does not reject ETS 1, which has been in operation since 2005 and covers energy, industry and aviation, outright, but is calling for major reform. The Czech government completely rejects ETS 2, which is due to extend emissions allowances to road transport and building heating from 2028.

Von der Leyen also said the EU was preparing options to bring down energy prices, including making better use of electricity purchase agreements, state aid and subsidies, or capping gas prices. Households and businesses need immediate relief, according to the Commission chief. “The price of energy itself accounts for more than 56 percent of the bill. Network charges make up 18 percent, and other taxes and fees 15 percent. These are, of course, averages and vary according to the energy mix of each member state,” the Commission president said.

According to the head of the EU executive, there is scope to increase the productivity of grids so that less renewable energy is wasted. “Let me give you one figure: last year, we installed more than 80 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity in the EU, a record. Yet six times more energy generated from renewables fails to make it onto the grids. This is unsustainable at a time when electricity demand is rising,” she said.

Taxes and fees are the responsibility of member states. However, the Commission chief said it was true that some EU countries tax electricity much more heavily than gas.

The Commission chief also stressed to MEPs today that Iran is governed by an autocratic regime and that the Iranian people deserve freedom. “No tears should be shed for such a regime,” she said.

In response, Iratxe García, chair of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group, told the Commission chief that although there was no need to mourn the Iranian regime, neither could people remain silent about the killing of innocent civilians in Iran, who are also victims of US and Israeli attacks, or in Lebanon, where the Israeli army is fighting Hezbollah. French MEP Manon Aubry of The Left group also criticised von der Leyen for not mentioning “a single word” about the civilian victims of the war in her speech to the European Parliament today.

García also described the US and Israeli attacks today as violations of the UN Charter and international law. “If we accept that great powers can bomb countries whenever they please, we are returning to the law of the jungle,” the S&D group chair said.

The US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on 28 February. US President Donald Trump said the aim was to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and also called on Iranians to take to the streets and overthrow the regime. Among those killed in US-Israeli bombing of Tehran was Iran’s long-serving supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was then succeeded by his son Mojtaba Khamenei. In retaliation, Iran has been bombing Israel and US facilities in the Persian Gulf countries, while its missiles or fragments brought down by air defences have also landed on civilian buildings in those states.

Renew Europe chair Valérie Hayer said in the European Parliament today, in response to the Commission chief’s speech, that although the US and Israel had been waging war against Iran for almost two weeks, the Iranian regime “is still standing”. “When the US stops bombing, the rest of the diplomatic work will be up to us, as happened last June,” she said, referring to last year’s Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and military sites, to which Tehran also responded with missile attacks on Israel. The two sides exchanged fire for almost two weeks last June, until Trump announced a ceasefire. He announced it two days after the United States joined the conflict with air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Nicola Procaccini, an Italian MEP and co-chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, stressed today that support for Ukraine, which has been defending itself against Russian aggression for more than four years, must not be forgotten during the war against Iran.