Brussels, 09/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - Faced with the threat of an industrial disaster, European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship Antonio Tajani says he supports shale gas extraction and believes the ECB's policy is ineffective.
In an interview, published on 9 September, given to British newspaper The Daily Telegraph on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti Forum (Lake Como, 7 September), Tajani - an ardent supporter of Europe's re-industrialisation - does not hide his concern for European industry, which is facing exorbitant energy costs and an overvalued euro. This, in Tajani's opinion, blights efforts to reverse years of global manufacturing decline. “We face a systemic industrial massacre”, he states, warning that the idealist rush towards renewable energy is pushing electricity costs to untenable levels in the EU and preventing it from competing with the US, where the economy has been boosted by the shale revolution.
“I am in favour of a green agenda, but we can't be religious about this. We need a new energy policy. We have to stop pretending, because we can't sacrifice Europe's industry for climate goals that are not realistic, and are not being enforced worldwide”, Tajani states. On a personal level, he says that he is in favour of shale gas in Europe. The European Commission is due to bring out draft legislative framework in October aiming to regulate exploitation of this alternative source in the EU. The method of extracting shale gas through hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) is widely criticised because of its damaging consequences on the environment.
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, who also took part in the Ambrosetti Forum, echoed Tajani's sentiments and called on the EU to reduce its energy costs as a top priority. “Compared to US competitors, European industry pays today twice as much for electricity, and four times as much for gas. Our companies don't get the rewards for being more efficient”, he warned.
Besides energy costs, Tajani believes that the crisis is exacerbated by the European Central Bank's (ECB) restrictive monetary policy, which in his opinion has not succeeded in alleviating a serious credit crisis for small companies in Italy, Spain and the eurozone. “The euro is far too strong and it is making it very hard for our companies to compete with the Chinese. We need a real central bank, like the US Federal Reserve or the Bank of England, willing to promote growth”¸ he says bluntly. “The ECB should be lending to small firms, just as the Bank of England is doing. It is impossible for us to bring down unemployment or cut our public debt without a strong industrial policy that revives small business”, Tajani concludes. (EH/transl.fl)