With European leaders due to meet on 12 February for an informal summit on the EU’s competitiveness, the Renew Europe group has used this opportunity to put energy sovereignty centre stage.
Meeting at an event on affordable energy prices in the EU, on Wednesday 4 February, three MEPs from the Renew Europe group highlighted the need to put energy security back at the top of the European agenda. The group has also pushed for a debate on the issue at the next Parliament plenary session, in the week of 9 February.
The discussions are also taking place against a backdrop of trade tensions with the United States and fears of renewed European dependence on imports of US fossil fuels, including liquefied natural gas (LNG).
More broadly, “the EU now imports 58% of its energy. Europe’s inability to fully produce our own energy lies at the root of Europe’s political, economic and geo-political crises”, summarises a position paper published on 4 February (https://aeur.eu/f/kkv ).
On the same day, Parliament’s rapporteurs on EU-US relations confirmed the resumption of talks on the summer agreement on transatlantic trade (see other news).
The implications of this agreement for energy are significant, as the EU has committed to purchasing $750 billion worth of US energy products by 2028.
According to Christophe Grudler (French), this commitment is neither “realistic” or “fair” for clean electricity producers in Europe, who will be penalised by the application of 15% tariffs, while several sectors of US industry will be able to export to the EU at zero tariffs.
The group is also committed to modernising and developing Europe’s electricity grids, supporting the “pro-European” approach proposed by the European Commission in its new grids package (see EUROPE 13770/4).
“We need to invest in our electricity grids, in our Energy Union and accelerate the development of green energy. Of course, we will reach the conclusions of the negotiations on the trade agreement, but we must ensure that it includes security clauses”, said Brigitte van den Berg (Dutch).
For Emma Wiesner (Swedish), the only consolation in engaging with the US is the fact that the agreement has the potential to discourage the US administration from freezing exports and, more broadly, from using fossil fuels as a trade weapon, as Russia has done in the past. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)