Von der Leyen: «War within the Middle East prices the EU 500 million a day» | EUROtoday

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Five hundred million of euros per day. This is the price of the struggle within the Middle East for Europe. As underlined by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in his speech to the plenary session of the European Chamber, «in simply sixty days of battle, our spending on the import of fossil fuels has elevated by greater than 27 billion euros». The emergency, the president warns, might have penalties that can be felt “for months or even years”.

The precedence is to reopen Hormuz

The chief of the Commission then expressed Europe’s place on the struggle within the Persian Gulf: «We all need the ceasefires in Iran and Lebanon to carry, with the ultimate goal of re-establishing peace and stability by way of diplomatic means». The goal is to attain a long-lasting finish to hostilities, with a purpose to re-establish “full and permanent freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz without tolls.”

Von der Leyen additionally added {that a} peace settlement will essentially have to handle the difficulty of Iranian nuclear programand underlined the significance of collaboration between the EU and companions resembling Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

Reduce Europe’s vitality dependence

To face this new context, with the second vitality disaster in 4 years, the watchword based on the Commission is “independence”. «The path ahead is apparent: we should cut back our extreme dependence from imported fossil fuels and enhance our home manufacturing of fresh, inexpensive vitality,” von der Leyen stated in Strasbourg. The technique to free your self from vitality dependancy additionally features a higher cooperation between the members of the Union, in order to keep away from inside conflicts between totally different pursuits.

The Commission’s recipe: renewables, nuclear and electrification

In his speech to the European Parliament, von der Leyen cited Sweden as a virtuous instance of an efficient vitality combine, with a mix of renewable and nuclear vitality to cowl many of the nationwide wants. Furthermore, the president underlined the significance of creating assist instruments for households and companies focused to assist probably the most susceptible topics. Finally, the Commission goals to speed up the method electrification of the Unionwith a brand new plan coming later this summer time.