The President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, addressed the European Parliament Plenary, saying that Europe today is too reliant on gas and too dependent on gas imports.
This makes us vulnerable. The answer has to do with diversifying our suppliers. But also keeping the role of natural gas as transitional fuel and, crucially, with speeding up the transition to clean energy
said Ursula von der Leyen, described the measures that can be deployed to address the situation in the short term.
As she expalined EU’s priority is to give relief to vulnerable families and businesses, while some measures can be taken very swiftly, under current EU rules.
This includes relief for businesses – especially SMEs – through state aid, targeted support to consumers, and cuts to energy taxes and levies. This is where Member States can act very quickly
What is more, through the EU’s recovery programme NextGenerationEU, €36 billion has already been earmarked for clean energy, from hydrogen to offshore wind power.
Now, the President added that “only true European teamwork will be able to achieve this.”
Furthermore, looking ahead to the climate summit at the end of the month, she added:
The upcoming COP26 in Glasgow will be the moment for the whole world to speed up action. Because the world is not yet on track to match our commitments under the Paris Agreement. So much more needs to be done to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees over pre-industrial levels
