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Energy crisis hits Europe - Who pays the price? MEPs clash in The Ring
In this new edition of The Ring, broadcast from the European Parliament in Brussels, MEPs Fabrice Leggeri (Patriots for Europe) and Jussi Saramo (The Left) debate Europe’s energy strategy as geopolitical tensions shake global markets.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/03/19/energy-crisis-hits-europe-who-pays-the-price-meps-clash-in-the-ring
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In this new edition of The Ring, broadcast from the European Parliament in Brussels, MEPs Fabrice Leggeri (Patriots for Europe) and Jussi Saramo (The Left) debate Europe’s energy strategy as geopolitical tensions shake global markets.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/03/19/energy-crisis-hits-europe-who-pays-the-price-meps-clash-in-the-ring
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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NewsTranscript
00:08Hello there and welcome to The Ring, your news is debating show, broadcasting from the
00:13European Parliament here in Brussels. On The Ring, elected members of the European Parliament
00:19go face to face on some of the major challenges facing Brussels today, with the war in the
00:25Middle East raging on. For this episode, we're honing in on the crucial topic of energy independence
00:31and strategic autonomy in the European Union and how to address this conundrum.
00:37As the war in the Middle East intensifies, its effects are being felt on global energy markets
00:43as disruptions on the Strait of Hormuz have tightened supply routes. In response to rising price
00:48pressures, the United States expanded a temporary sanctions waiver, previously limited to India,
00:53allowing all countries to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea. The decision has
00:59raised concerns in Europe. European Council President Antonio Costa called the move a
01:04unilateral decision that is very concerning, warning it could affect European security and
01:09weaken the sanctions framework established after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
01:15Meanwhile, Germany is exploring emergency options. From tapping reserves to securing additional supplies
01:21from Norway and introducing a daily fuel price cap to protect consumers. With prices volatile and
01:28political tensions rising, the debate over Europe's long-term economic and energy future is intensifying.
01:34Should nuclear power play a larger role in Europe's future energy mix? And will the European Union move
01:40quickly enough to protect consumers from the surge in energy prices?
01:46Some of the questions that we have for our contenders, let's meet them.
01:52Jussi Saramo, a Finnish MEP from the Left Group. He has been a member of the European Parliament since 2024
01:59and
02:00previously served in the Finnish Parliament for the Left Alliance, briefly holding the position of Minister
02:05of Education in the government of San Marín. As an MEP, he focuses on economic issues and he is the
02:11coordinator of the Left Group in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Subcommittee
02:15on Tax Matters. On the escalation in the Middle East, he said,
02:19Trump's war increases the cost of transportation and heating homes at a time when many Europeans are
02:26already suffering the consequences of Putin's war. Those who oppose the green transition are impoverished in
02:32Europe. Putin is grateful when oil money flows into his war chest.
02:37Fabrice Legéry, a French MEP from the Patriots for Europe Group. He has been a member of the European
02:43Parliament since 2024. Before entering politics, he served as executive director of the EU's border
02:49agency, Frontex. In the context of the war in Iran, he said, our ideological choices have led us to weaken
02:56our sovereignty by replacing one dependency with another. Europe must break away from this logic
03:02of dependency by massively reinvesting in its own capacities, particularly nuclear energy. Refusing
03:09any pragmatic solution, including the temporary use of certain existing sources, would amount to placing
03:14a lasting burden on Europeans. Yossi Sadamor, Yves and Fabrice Legéry, welcome to The Ring.
03:22So first question, even if a ceasefire were agreed today to stop the war in the Middle East,
03:28is Europe still heading towards an energy crisis? Well, I think that on the long term,
03:32we need to secure Europe's energy supply and we need to make sure that the European Union,
03:39European member states are not dependent on any superpower. And do you see an immediate crisis
03:44though? I think this is something that we agree on. Europe has had an energy crisis going on for a
03:50very long time and it's just been stupid. Even if at good times, we are pouring money to Saudi Arabia,
03:56Russia, Iran, and it has a geopolitical level that we should get rid of. Well, our viewers are sitting
04:02at home extremely concerned this week. If you look at countries like Germany as well, where fuel prices
04:07have gone up by five percent in recent weeks. That's well above the EU average. They're looking
04:13for measures, perhaps EU measures. We understand in Germany they're introducing a potential daily
04:17price cap. But is this time for the European Union now to intervene? Well, from my perspective,
04:23we should make sure that oil is not, that taxes on oil are not too high. And this is the
04:29first measure
04:30that should be decided at national level. Germany should have been doing a lot of stuff already years
04:36ago, so they are already too late. I'm very happy that we are doing the green transition in the European
04:41Union. The problem is that in this house, in the council between the member countries, there are a
04:46lot of political parties that don't want it. And the more we delay it, the bigger the trouble we have.
04:53And of course, in the Netherlands, Dutch drivers are currently paying the highest for their petrol,
04:58around 2.17 per litre. That's huge. It's huge for every European driver. It's huge also for European
05:07companies. And who is to blame for this? Well, the situation is that there was an ideology in the
05:13European Union driven by the European Commission. So you're blaming the European Commission for the
05:18current crisis that people are having when they go to town? The fact that we have an increase in
05:22in price is that, in fact, the European Union is dependent on both. Now we are dependent on the
05:32liquefied natural gas. So we are dependent on the US. We stop the dependency or reduce the dependency on
05:39Russia. But we don't have an alternative. And we should invest more in European capacities. That's,
05:46of course, the internal debate going on right now here. Would you agree what he just said,
05:49that Brussels is to blame here? No, actually, I think it's the member states to blame. And we have
05:54European problems. Let's say the grids. Like in France, we have a lot of nuclear power. In Germany,
06:01they have totally different energy mix, actually a very problematic energy mix because they were so
06:06dependent on Russia. But now we don't have good grids to transfer the energy in Europe. And that's one of
06:12the reasons that we could have cheaper energy almost everywhere if the grids would work. But of course,
06:18always there are some countries that would win more and some countries could even lose. And that's
06:23why we don't have yet European solutions. And we're always hearing about this term of energy union. But
06:28of course, we're very far from that. Yeah, we are far from that. We have to blame the German policy
06:32in the
06:33past years because it was driven by a green agenda, banning or shutting down nuclear plants in Germany.
06:43And as a consequence, Germany had no alternative when the Russian aggression against Ukraine started.
06:51I'm not sure how green agenda it was because they were dependent on Russian fossils. And actually,
06:56so it's true that if you have already working nuclear power plant that could be used, like it still has
07:02a
07:02life. It's a bit stupid to stop it. But it's only a very small part of the problem.
07:08So are you in favor of nuclear? Was it a mistake for countries to start closing their nuclear plants?
07:13Well, I think if you have an old nuclear power plant that is working well, that it's safe,
07:18in this kind of situation where we are having the transformation, we should make the green
07:22transition more quicker, then it is not wise to shut it down. But thinking about building new nuclear
07:29power plants, actually, we were building a French nuclear power plant to Finland. And it's one of the most
07:34expensive buildings in the world. Like it took so long to build the same problems everywhere in the
07:41world. It's so slow, so expensive. If we want to answer to people's problems today, this decade,
07:49we need to build renewables, not a nuclear power. Renewables. Public opinion, Fabrice,
07:55is divided when it comes to nuclear. And countries like Austria, they've had a referendum in the past
07:59saying they never want nuclear. Well, but public opinion are also concerned when the price of
08:04energy is so high. So they also have to be informed about the consequence of not being independent.
08:11And my concern is that Europe or European countries are not self-standing. They are dependent on other sources,
08:21on other third countries. And on that dependency, we saw Antonio Costa spend some of his week, of course,
08:26in Azerbaijan. This is the EU's plan to diversify their energy dependence. Is this a good idea? Do you support
08:32the fact that he's spending time and working with Azerbaijan? We can always find a new authoritarian
08:38dictatorship, new area where we can buy the oil. But the problem is the market. Like now, if we don't
08:43buy the Russian fossils, somebody else will do. So actually, the more we buy fossils, the bigger the
08:49problem is no matter if we are responsible. And actually, I don't think that Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia,
08:57Iran, Russia, even United States are countries that we want to pour our money into. Why don't we keep
09:03our money here in Europe and let's make more green energy? But in the interim, what do we do? Because
09:07it takes time. Well, actually, it's very quick. The renewables are so much better than nuclear.
09:13When we speak about the time, how quickly we can build it. As I told, we are too late,
09:20but it's a good time to start a very big time. And speaking of time, it's interesting what China has
09:26been doing. Massive energy stockpiles aggressively building them over the last couple of years to protect
09:31themselves from oil shocks and geopolitical tensions. Can the EU ever catch up, Fabrice, with China?
09:37Well, I'm afraid that the policy driven by the European Commission put us in the hands of China.
09:46Look at the solar panels, for example. The solar panel industry has been completely destroyed in Europe.
09:51That's a pity. So I can agree that to a certain extent, we need to diversify the energy mix in
09:58Europe.
09:59But why don't we have in Europe our own solar panels?
10:05I think solar panels is something that we were the best in the world and we are not anymore. Like
10:11the
10:11Chinese, they are building it so cheap, so quickly. Actually, at the moment, we should not try to win the
10:17competition on solar panels, but many other issues. Like now, we are fighting about electric cars and this is a
10:24competition we are not. We cannot lose this competition. China, it's actually it's a fierce
10:30capitalist competition inside China, but outside they are dumping prices. Actually, both China and
10:36US, they are very much taking care of their own benefit. And in the European Union, we have been
10:41living on this neoliberal dream that there is a free market that will solve all the problems. And this is
10:45the main problem. But I don't think that it's only the Commission or the European Union to blame. I think,
10:50again, it's the member states that have been building the system together, of course, with the European
10:55Union. That's the view from the MEPs we'd like to hear as well. Who do you think is to blame?
10:59You can
10:59always write to us at the ring at yournews.com. But gentlemen, I want to stop you there as we're
11:03just
11:03getting into it.
11:08So now it's time to give our viewers a real insight into the European Parliament chamber where MEPs address
11:14questions to each other. That means that our MEPs can directly challenge each other, just like you
11:19do inside the hemicycle. And I know you sit on other sides of the hemicycle, so you don't know each
11:23other. So I'm glad that you're meeting here on the ring. Yussi Seramo, the floor is yours.
11:27Okay. I would like to ask you, you have been voting against the proposal to face out Russian
11:35gas imports. And we know that Russia is having a war in Europe attacking us. And we are using a
11:41lot
11:41of money to secure ourselves from Russia. So how good idea is to support the Putin's war chest?
11:48Well, Russia aggressed Ukraine. And there's no question about that. The question is about the
11:57impact of sanctions on European citizens and European companies. And we do see hypocrisy because,
12:06for example, there are sanctions. But nevertheless, President Macron didn't stop importing Russian
12:14liquefied natural gas. So we think that we should avoid this hypocrisy. And we should just make sure
12:24that we secure our own needs. Very briefly, are you satisfied with that answer? Well, not actually,
12:31because I agree that there is hypocrisy in Europe. But it's not a reason to support Putin's war. If
12:38somebody else is hypocrisy, why should we keep supporting the war? No, we don't support Russian
12:45Russian war. As this was just said, there is India, for example, helping, well, circumventing EU sanctions.
12:56Even President Trump was hesitating about, well, sanctions against Russia. So the European Union
13:05should wake up and look at its own interests and the interests of its own companies, its own consumers.
13:12And from my perspective, we should, let's say, not shift from one dependency on Russian oil to
13:19dependency on American liquefied gas or any other source. Fabrice, it's time for you now to address your
13:26first question. Well, what do you think about the success or the shortage of the green policy that
13:37has been implemented in the in the European Union? Well, it depends very much which country you talk
13:42about. I'm coming from Finland and we have the cheapest or the second cheapest electricity in
13:47Europe. And we have been implementing the green transition very well. We have nuclear power,
13:54old nuclear power. And actually, the Finnish government was dreaming and they were already
13:59having a contract to build more Russian nuclear power, which we were against because and we were
14:04called Russophobes by the right wing. But like when we talk about the energy pallet, it should be brought.
14:11So we need the renewables. We need nuclear if you still have it. But I think it's
14:19something that always should be discussed by a very coherent way and not just like nuclear power
14:26itself. It's not the solution or wind is not a solution. Solar is not a solution. We need all of
14:32them. What about the sanctions? Because we we've just mentioned the sanctions against Russia coming from
14:38Finland. Of course, you are really aware of the Russian threat. So how do you assess the policy
14:45the policy, followed by other member states, just as Germany or other big countries, when they decided
14:53in a very ideological way to impose sanctions without having any kind of assessment on the internal
15:02conference? Yeah, Finnish economy is very bad at the moment. And one reason is, of course, this war
15:08and sanctions don't help our economy. That's clear. But I would say that the Finnish people,
15:14a very broad majority of us support the sanctions because we see that Russia has been doing not only
15:19in Ukraine, in Moldova, in Georgia and everywhere where they find weaknesses with their neighbors,
15:25they have been very aggressive and having wars. And we know that we cannot tell Putin that it's okay to
15:32do
15:32what he's doing. So I think the Finnish people are not happy with the sanctions, but they see it as
15:37a
15:37minor trend. Okay, you'll see time for your next question. When you are against the Green Deal and you
15:42know that nuclear power is so slow to build and you are giving that as an answer. What do you
15:46promise for
15:47the people between this? Well, in fact, we we promise that we will avoid any kind of ideological decision.
15:56And there is too much ideology in Brussels. And the Green agenda driven by the European Commission,
16:03driven by the German Greens, in fact, has led the European Union and the EU member states to a really
16:12difficult situation that we realized when the Russian aggression started against Ukraine. And overnight,
16:20we had to impose sanctions on Russia. That's fine. But we had no alternative and we had to shift our
16:28dependency to the United States. And of course, it's also worth pointing out to our viewers that the
16:33Green agenda has slightly shifted now to the clean industrial agenda. And this whole idea of the Green
16:37Deal is barely mentioned now with the new tone inside the European Commission. But we've heard from
16:41you. We've heard from the MEPs. And I'd like now to bring in a new voice here. I'd like to
16:49bring in
16:49the voice of President Volodymyr Zelensky speaking at a press conference alongside the French President
16:54Emmanuel Macron in Paris. He said, I believe that lifting sanctions will in any case lead to a
17:00strengthening of Russia's position. It spends the money from energy sales on weapons and all of this is
17:06then used against us. And of course, you must have seen this week that due to the crisis in the
17:11Middle East, President Donald Trump has eased sanctions on all countries buying Russian oil
17:15for one month. And President Zelensky clearly not impressed with this decision. What is your view
17:20here? In fact, we see that there is hypocrisy. And it's always the same pattern that the European
17:28Union... What's your view on what President Trump has done? What President Trump is doing? Well,
17:33the crisis in the Middle East is much broader. There is geopolitics. There is Iran being a threat to its
17:43own people because we should not forget. So do you support what he's done? I'm saying that we will not
17:48regret. If the Islamist regime in Tehran collapses, we will not regret that regime. And we should also take
17:58into account that the nuclear threat represented potentially by Iran is huge for the region there,
18:04for Arab countries neighboring Iran, for Israel, and for a part of Europe. Okay, let's bring in the view
18:10of Yossi Sadamo at this point. Well, it's clear that Iran is a horrible, uh, theocratic regime for
18:16its people. And these brave people, uh, thousands of them have lost their lives fighting against the regime.
18:22So, of course, I want to support the Iranese people to fight for their liberty. But then when we talk
18:27about what Trump is doing, uh, actually, I think Trump, Netanyahu, Putin, even the Iranese regime,
18:34it's, it's the same. It's like the, uh, autocratic men, very extreme rights regimes that you are using the
18:42religion as an example are committing war crimes, uh, are against equality and human rights. And they are all
18:49trying to break the international law and justice. And this is something that we cannot be doing here
18:56to try and stop this war. There's a difference between an Iranian regime, which is a terrorist
19:02threat sponsoring terrorism all around the globe and democracies, uh, in the United States, uh, in
19:09Israel, uh, and, and of course in, in Europe. You know, I just wanted to add that bombing schools
19:15doesn't help the Iranese people on their fight. Actually, it, uh, makes the regime even more
19:19legitimate on the eyes of many. And now what we are doing that we should call the Trump's bluff
19:25because his hand, you know, no matter if you talk about NATO, taxation, tariffs, climate change,
19:32whatever we talk, he's blackmailing us. And the European leaders always, uh, in the end, they say,
19:38okay, what do whatever. And they're even supporting it, even in Iran. And of course, Donald Trump was the
19:43elephant in the room of that EU summit that took place here in Brussels this week, but let's just
19:47take a short break here on the ring, but stay with us because we'll be back very soon here with
19:51some
19:51more political punch.
20:01Welcome back to the ring, your news's weekly debating show. I'm joined by MEPs, Fabrice Légeri
20:07and Yusuf Sadamo. And the idea here is to bring the European parliament debates to your very
20:12sofa. This week, we're focusing on how the war in Iran is affecting European consumers.
20:17As global energy markets react to disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz, trade flows are
20:22shifting in very unexpected ways. The US president Donald Trump has expanded a temporary sanctions
20:27waiver, allowing countries to purchase Russian oil. But who are the top buyers of Russian oil?
20:33That is what we're taking a look at. India with about 40%. China with about 30%. And then Turkey
20:40with 10% of the Russian seaborne crude. Sanctions, of course, have been a big part of the EU policies
20:46against Russian since the invasion. But the question is, of course, is Russia actually feeling it?
20:51Gentlemen, a reaction there to that data. Fabrice?
20:53Well, I'm not surprised by the figures. In order to make EU sanctions really effective,
21:00we should have coordinated our measures with other big players in the world.
21:04Is Vladimir Putin the big winner of this war?
21:07Definitely. The sanctions, even they haven't been working as well as we have been hoping,
21:13but the sanctions have been working on one issue that the price that Russia has been getting has
21:19been very low. And now, after Trump's manoeuvres, the prices are going up, what Putin is getting,
21:27and that's very bad for us. It's very bad for everyone.
21:29But now that the European Union has just this year signed a historic trade deal with India,
21:33Russia. Does Brussels have more leverage now, perhaps, with counterparts there?
21:36Well, the problem is that President von der Leyen, president of the commission,
21:42behaves as she had the power to be a big player. She compares herself with Donald Trump,
21:49with Chinese leadership and so on. But in fact, she has just weakened the position of the EU.
21:58Would you agree with what Fabrice has just said?
22:00I agree, maybe with some slightly different reasons, but it's true. I said that we should
22:04call the Trump's bluff. And actually, he doesn't have a good hand of cards on his hand, what he's
22:11blaming. The US is a superpower, thanks to Europe. And if we say no, it's true if von der Leyen
22:18says no to
22:19Trump when he's blackmailing us. Trump doesn't care. But the markets, they care. And always,
22:25men, the markets go down. If Trump says, OK, let's put 80 percent of the tariffs, let's put it.
22:30In the end, it will be bad for us, but it will be very bad for the United States. And
22:34after that,
22:35the Trump has to listen to us. But this is the weakness. But it's not only von der Leyen,
22:39it's Mertz, it's the whole EPP, this group that is leading the European Union,
22:43that it's very weak and they should find their spine.
22:45We need to be tough players. And I think that if they are bargaining...
22:53But Esther von der Leyen is trying to be tough. But when she's tough, you say she's overstepping
22:56her line. She is not because she doesn't have a mandate to do so.
23:00So the EU only work if we have a proper government structure with an elected president and proper
23:04ministers instead of 27 commissioners. Well, this is a very big discussion. But actually, I agree that we
23:11should, like we have now Orban, we have Fitcher, we have the fifth column inside the European Union.
23:18Some are playing for Trump, some are playing for Putin. And it's one of the reasons why Europe is weak,
23:24that we are so divided. And of course, you mentioned two very important leaders of Hungary
23:28and Slovakia, who of course are still very much reliant on Russian oil. That's why we've seen as well.
23:32And we've been reporting about for weeks here about that Drozba pipeline, the big splash between Ukraine and Hungary.
23:38Can I ask, Orban's party, Fidesz, it's your biggest ally here in Brussels.
23:44Why aren't you pushing them to work for Europe and not for MAGA, not for Trump and Putin?
23:50Well, in the Patriots group, we have 12 nationalities and the French members represent the biggest part of the country.
24:01But on Orban, we say that, of course, when it comes to this issue about the pipeline,
24:08this shows that Europe is still dependent and there is no alternative for Hungary to import energy.
24:17So we consider that this is a national issue in our group. We consider that international relation and foreign affairs
24:27is a sovereign national issue.
24:29But is it enough to hijack then the 90 billion euro loan for Ukraine?
24:33Well, we are against this loan because it's not, in our views, in the long term interest of European citizens,
24:40because that means that the European Union now is developing huge debts and coming from France, I can see what
24:49President Macron did.
24:50So he increased French debts by 50% in the past 10 years.
24:56And we see a pattern now that President Macron has convinced, obviously, the European Commission and the Germans to develop
25:04also debt at the European Union level.
25:07So that's our concern. It's not about Russia or Ukraine. It's about our own interest.
25:12I think it's all about Ukraine. If they cannot defend themselves, if they cannot feed their people, they will collapse.
25:18And that will be not just terrible for all the Ukrainians, but it will be terrible for the for the
25:23whole Europe.
25:24And we are always cleaning the mess that U.S. is doing in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, wherever.
25:31This is something that we don't have to touch with. Maybe we cannot stop them killing people.
25:35We cannot stop Netanyahu making genocide, but we should not support them.
25:39But when we are in Europe, we have to do all we can to to prevent this kind of dominoes
25:47that Russia is having all their borders.
25:50But on that point, we can move on now to our fifth and final round. Are you all set?
25:55Ready.
25:56Ready.
25:59To finalise now, it is time for something a little bit different.
26:03I'm going to be asking our MEPs a set of questions, and you can only answer with yes or no.
26:08Is that doable?
26:09Yes, I hope so.
26:11Should nuclear energy be classified as green?
26:14Yes.
26:20This is complicated, but let's say yes.
26:23Should all EU countries be investing in nuclear?
26:27Yes.
26:28No.
26:29Should EU funding be helping support nuclear energy?
26:32Yes.
26:33No.
26:34Is hydrogen energy a good solution? Yes or no?
26:38No.
26:39Yes or no?
26:40Usually, yes.
26:42Should the EU ban fossil fuel use by 2040? Yes or no?
26:46No.
26:47Yes.
26:48Should natural gas still be used as a transition fuel? Yes or no?
26:52A small part, yes.
26:54What about you? Yes or no?
26:56Are EU-US ties in ruins? Yes or no?
26:59They should be. They are. Yes.
27:03What about you? Yes or no?
27:04No.
27:05And final question for you both?
27:06Will this crisis slow down the green transition?
27:10Should not.
27:11But it looks like we have irresponsible politicians, so yes.
27:16What about you? Yes or no?
27:18Well, that final answer does bring this edition of The Ring to an end.
27:22Thank you so much, Fabrice Legeri and Yussi Sadamo for being our guests.
27:25It's been great to hear your views and your insights.
27:28But of course, what about you?
27:29Let us know what you think about what we've been discussing.
27:32You can write to us at The Ring at Euronews.com
27:35and tell us how you feel about the current energy crisis
27:37and the role of the European Union here.
27:39Take care and see you soon on Euronews.