BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 21. It is time to complete Europe’s energy union, said President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen with her special address during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trend reports.
She recalled that Before the start of the war in Ukraine, Europe got 45% of its gas supplies and 50% of its coal imports from Russia.
“Russia was also one of our largest oil suppliers. Our gas imports from Russia went down by roughly 75%, and now we import from Russia only 3% of our oil and no coal at all anymore. But freedom came at a price. Households and businesses saw sky-high energy costs, and bills for many are yet to come down. Now our competitiveness depends on getting back to low and stable energy prices. Clean energy is the midterm answer, because it is cheap, it creates good jobs here in the European Union, and it strengthens our energy independence,” she said.
Ursula von der Leyen noted that already today, Europe generates more electricity from wind and solar than from all fossil fuels combined.
“But we still have lots of work to do to feed through these benefits to companies and people. Not only must we continue to diversify our energy supplies and expand clean sources of generation from renewables, and in some countries also from nuclear, we will have to invest in next-generation clean energy technologies, like fusion, enhanced geothermal, and solid-state batteries,” said the Commission’s president.
She believes that Europe must also mobilize more private capital to modernize its electricity grids and storage infrastructure.
“We must remove the remaining barriers to our energy union, and we must better connect our clean and low-carbon energy systems. All of this will be part of a new plan that we will present in February. It is time to complete our energy union so that clean power can run freely across our continent and bring prices down for all Europeans. This is our plan, and the next few years will be vital to stay in the race of clean and disruptive technologies. Europe has everything it needs to make it happen,” said Ursula von der Leyen.
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