12
Mar
2025
Watch
Accelerating the phase-out of Russian gas and other Russian energy commodities in the EU (debate)
Mr President, despite ongoing discussions on how to promote our economic security and resilience, we still do not have a clear vision of how to deal with our dependence on totalitarian regimes. Already in 2014, following the Russian annexation of Crimea, we agreed to diversify our energy sources. We saw this as a step to protect our economic and security interests. Unfortunately, Europe did the exact opposite of what was agreed. We have increased our dependence on Russian energy sources. Even today, three years after the start of the brutal aggression against Ukraine, which causes human suffering and death on a daily basis, we still see a similar scenario. We call for diversification, but only in the last year have we increased our imports of Russian LNG. Such double-facedness weakens us in times of greatest geopolitical challenges. If we can't achieve our goals, we need to acknowledge and address them. Don't stick your head in the sand, it's just a ball to the sweep of the extreme. Today we need a principled foreign policy. It is our strength, not our weakness.