Brussels, 17/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - Vice-President of the European Commission Antonio Tajani and Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski agree that it is necessary to have a European policy that focuses more on the cost of energy.
An ardent activist for the re-industrialisation of Europe and a defender of European competitiveness that has been hamstrung by “prohibitive” energy costs, Tajani has found an ally in Poland, in the person of Komorowski. The two men were on the same wavelength at a meeting on the sidelines of the 3rd Congress of SMEs in Katowice on 16 September on an issue that is dear to the industry commissioner. During their discussion on the EU's economic situation and on ways to strengthen growth and employment through re-industrialisation, Tajani and Komorowski agreed there was a need to “make the EU more attractive for investments in the manufacturing sector, including through environmental policies attentive to industrial competitiveness and energy costs”, a press release reads.
Only last week at the European Parliament, the commissioner expressed his concern for the European industry which, he believes, has fallen victim to the exorbitant cost of energy that annihilates efforts made to overcome years of industrial production decline. “We are faced with a systemic industrial massacre”, he deplored earlier this month in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, warning that the rush to renewable energies is pushing electricity costs in the EU to untenable heights and is preventing the EU from contending with the United States, whose economy has been reactivated by the shale gas revolution. Poland, whose immense reserves of shale open up golden prospects for its economy, has found an ally within a Commission which, in October, is to submit a draft legislative framework for governing the exploitation of that alternative source in the EU. The hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) involved in shale gas extraction is widely criticised for its harmful effect on the environment. (EH/transl.jl)