Energy: Europe was “greedy” and not “naive” in the face of Russia, according to Vestager

By entrusting a large part of their energy supply to Russia, the Europeans have shown themselves to be “greedy” and not “naive”, said European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager on Tuesday in an interview with several European newspapers.

“We weren’t naive, we were greedy. Our industry was built a lot around Russian energy first and foremost because it was cheap,” says Vestager, who is also vice-president of the European Commission, in this interview published in France by Les Echos.

She adds that the attitude of Europeans is the same “with China for many products or with Taiwan for chips, where above all we went to look for lower production costs”.

But “there was a big risk premium – dependence – that we are paying today” with the consequences of the war in Ukraine, explains the commissioner who judges that “we will now rather have to pay a premium for security”, in particular by betting on liquefied natural gas (LNG), more expensive but which can bring “stability and predictability, which will bring investments”, she assures.

Regarding the imposition of a European embargo on Russian oil, currently blocked by Hungary, Ms. Vestager said she was “convinced that an agreement will be found”. But she adds that “we cannot leave the states most dependent on Russian oil on the side of the road” and that we must “secure their supply”.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Tuesday “very unlikely” an agreement in the coming days, in a letter to the President of the European Council Charles Michel consulted Tuesday by AFP. The French presidency for its part indicated in the process that an agreement was still possible “in the days to come”.

German Economy and Climate Minister Robert Habeck recently accused Moscow of using energy “as a weapon”, while Europe’s largest economy is highly dependent on Russian gas.

© 2022 AFP

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