European Commission prepares proposals to get rid of energy dependence on Russia – EC President
European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen said the EC will put forward proposals on Tuesday on how to end the EU's dependence on Russian energy sources.
"We must get rid of the dependency on Russian gas, oil and coal (...) The Commission will make proposals tomorrow," the head of the European Commission said in Brussels on Monday during a joint statement to the media with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
She named three main directions to achieve this goal.
"The first is diversification of supply away from Russia and toward 'reliable partners," von der Leyen said, pointing to mainly LNG and pipeline gas. "Both have the advantage that the infrastructure is over time hydrogen-compatible."
The second main element is to repower the European Union. "We are looking for a focused acceleration of the European Green Deal. This is important and beneficial not only for our strategic investments in our (energy) independence, but also for our industry and for our planet," the EC President said.
All this, according to her, should be supplemented by the third component, namely, increasing energy efficiency. These range from efficient building renovations to the use of artificial intelligence, for example, for the rational management of energy networks.
Commenting on this statement at a briefing in Brussels, European Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer said that as for the result of all this, there will be a clearly increased ability of the European Union to supply energy without Russia, and at the same time to develop energy that produces energy in the European Union.