The strategic autonomy that has been claimed by the European Commission for a year is far from being achieved, according to some concerned MEPs. In an exchange in the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA), MEPs questioned EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis on the issue on Monday 28 February.
“Do we have an extensive list of goods for which we are largely dependent on Russia and another one indicating from which other destination we could import these important materials, be it raw materials or components?”, asked Christophe Hansen (EPP, Luxembourg). He added that European companies needed new opportunities elsewhere in the world to compensate for their losses. For Kathleen Van Brempt (S&D, Belgium) and Saskia Bricmont (Greens/EFA, Belgium), there is a long way to go before the EU is truly resilient.
It is clear that the sanctions will have an impact on the European economy, according to Mr Dombrovskis. However, “it’s a price worth paying for defending democracy and peace”, he said. That said, the European Commission is ready to speed up work on other free trade agreements, but “we need the support of the Member States and the Parliament, starting with this committee”.
In recent months, the European Commission’s ambition to conclude certain negotiations or move towards ratification of agreements has been held back by reluctance among Member States and in the European Parliament. The French Presidency of the EU Council is playing a particularly important role in slowing down certain agreements.
Import bans
Several MEPs raised the issue of gas and oil imports from Russia. “We are subsidising the war by importing gas [...] Is the EU looking into that?” asked Kathleen Van Brempt. Her colleague Karin Karlsbro (Renew Europe, Sweden) agreed.
“All options are on the table now, we are not excluding any possible measure. So far the assessment we had been doing was focused on the other way round: if Russia cuts gas supplies, what implications it has? The conclusion is that, not without problems, we could handle the situation”, Dombrovskis said. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)