Zum Player springenZum Hauptinhalt springen
  • vor 7 Stunden
Energiekrise trifft Europa - Wer zahlt den Preis? Europaabgeordnete debattieren in The Ring

In dieser neuen Ausgabe von The Ring, die aus dem Europäischen Parlament in Brüssel gesendet wird, debattieren die Europaabgeordneten Fabrice Leggeri (Patriots for Europe) und Jussi Saramo (Die Linke) über die europäische Energiestrategie angesichts der geopolitischen Spannungen auf den Weltmärkten.

LESEN SIE MEHR : http://de.euronews.com/2026/03/20/energiekrise-trifft-europa-wer-zahlt-den-preis-europaabgeordnete-debattieren-in-the-ring

Abonnieren Sie! Euronews gibt es in 12 Sprachen.

Kategorie

🗞
News
Transkript
00:08Untertitelung des ZDF für funk, 2017
00:36As the war in the Middle East intensifies, its effects are being felt on global energy markets as disruptions on
00:44the Strait of Hormuz have tightened supply routes.
00:47In response to rising price pressures, the United States expanded a temporary sanctions waiver, previously limited to India, allowing all
00:54countries to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea.
00:58The decision has raised concerns in Europe.
01:02European Council President Antonio Costa called the move a unilateral decision that is very concerning, warning it could affect European
01:08security and weaken the sanctions framework established after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
01:15Meanwhile, Germany is exploring emergency options, from tapping reserves to securing additional supplies from Norway and introducing a daily fuel
01:24price cap to protect consumers.
01:26With prices volatile and political 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?
01:38And will the European Union move quickly 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.
01:56He has been a member of the European Parliament since 2024 and previously served in the Finnish Parliament for the
02:02Left Alliance, briefly holding the position of Minister of Education in the government of Sanamarin.
02:07As an MEP, he focuses on economic issues and he is the coordinator of the Left Group in the Committee
02:13on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Subcommittee on Tax Matters.
02:16On the escalation in the Middle East, he said Trump's war increases the cost of transportation and heating homes at
02:24a time when many Europeans are already suffering the consequences of Putin's war.
02:29Those who oppose the green transition are impoverishing Europe.
02:32Putin is grateful when oil money flows into his war chest.
02:37Fabrice Legerri, a French MEP from the Patriots for Europe Group.
02:41He has been a member of the European Parliament since 2024.
02:44Before entering politics, he served as executive director of the EU's border agency, Frontex.
02:51In the context of the war in Iran, he said,
02:54Our ideological choices have led us to weaken our sovereignty by replacing one dependency with another.
03:00Europe must break away from this logic of dependency by massively reinvesting in its own capacities, particularly nuclear energy.
03:08Refusing any pragmatic solution, including the temporary use of certain existing sources, would amount to placing a lasting burden on
03:15Europeans.
03:18You see Sadamor, Yves and Fabrice Legerri, welcome to The Ring.
03:22Thank you.
03:23So first question, even if a ceasefire were agreed today to stop the war in the Middle East, is Europe
03:28still heading towards an energy crisis?
03:31Well, I think that on the long term, we need to secure Europe's energy supply.
03:36And we need to make sure that the European Union, European member states are not dependent on any superpower.
03:43And do you see an immediate crisis, though?
03:45I think this is something that we agree on.
03:48Europe has had an energy crisis going on for a very long time.
03:51And it's just been stupid, even if at good times we are pouring money to Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, and
03:57it has a geopolitical level that we should get rid of.
04:01Well, our viewers are sitting at home extremely concerned this week.
04:04If you look at countries like Germany as well, where fuel prices have gone up by 5% in recent
04:09weeks, that's well above the EU average.
04:12They're looking for measures, perhaps EU measures.
04:14We understand in Germany they're introducing a potential daily price cap.
04:18But is this time for the European Union now to intervene?
04:21Well, from my perspective, we should make sure that taxes on oil are not too high.
04:28And this is the first measure that should be decided at the national level.
04:33Germany should have been doing a lot of stuff already years ago, so they are already too late.
04:38I'm very happy that we are doing the green transition in the European Union.
04:41And the problem is that in this house, in the council between the member countries, there are a lot of
04:46political parties that don't want it.
04:50And 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, around 2.17 per
05:00litre.
05:01That's huge.
05:02It's huge for every European driver.
05:06It's huge also for European companies.
05:08And who is to blame for this?
05:09Well, the situation is that there was an ideology in the European Union, driven by the European Commission.
05:16So you're blaming the European Commission for the current crisis that people are having when they go to tank?
05:20The fact that we have an increase in price is that, in fact, the European Union is dependent on both.
05:30Now we are dependent on the liquefied natural gas.
05:34So we are dependent on the U.S.
05:36We stop the dependency or reduce the dependency on Russia.
05:40But we don't have an alternative.
05:42And we should invest more in European capacities.
05:45That's, of course, the internal debate going on right now here.
05:48Would you agree with what he just said, that Brussels is to blame here?
05:51No, actually, I think it's the member states to blame.
05:53And we have European problems.
05:55Let's say the grids.
05:56Like in France, we have a lot of nuclear power.
06:00And in Germany, they have totally different energy mix, actually a very problematic energy mix because they were so dependent
06:06on Russia.
06:07But now we don't have good grids to transfer the energy in Europe.
06:11And that's one of the reasons that we could have cheaper energy almost everywhere if the grids would work.
06:17But, of course, always there are some countries that would win more and some countries could even lose.
06:22And that's why we don't have yet European solutions.
06:25And we're always hearing about this term of energy union.
06:28But, of course, we're very far from that.
06:29Yeah, we are far from that.
06:30We have to blame the German policy in the past years because it was driven by a green agenda, banning,
06:39shutting 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 fossiles.
06:55And, actually, so it's true that if you have already working nuclear power plant that could be used, like it
07:01still has a life, it's a bit stupid to stop it.
07:06But it's only a very small part of the problem.
07:09So are you in favor of nuclear?
07:10Was 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, in this
07:19kind of situation where we are having the transformation,
07:21we should make the green transition more quicker.
07:24Then it is not wise to shut it down.
07:27But thinking about building new nuclear power plants, actually, we were building a French nuclear power plant to Finland.
07:32And it's one of the most expensive buildings in the world.
07:36Like, it took so long to build the same problems everywhere in the world.
07:41It's so slow, so expensive.
07:43If we want to answer to people's problems today, this decade, we need to build renewables, not nuclear power.
07:53Renewables.
07:53Public opinion, Fabrice, is divided when it comes to nuclear.
07:56In countries like Austria, they've had a referendum in the past saying they never want nuclear.
08:00Well, but public opinion are also concerned when the price of energy is so high.
08:05So 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.
08:18They are dependent on other sources, on other third countries.
08:23And on that dependency, we saw Antonio Costa spend some of his week, of course, in Azerbaijan.
08:28This is the EU's plan to diversify their energy dependence.
08:30Is this a good idea?
08:31Do you support the fact that he's spending time and working with Azerbaijan?
08:35We can always find a new authoritarian dictatorship, new area where we can buy the oil.
08:40But the problem is the market.
08:42Like, now, if we don't buy the Russian fossiles, somebody else will do.
08:46So, actually, the more we buy fossiles, the bigger the problem is no matter if we are responsible.
08:51And, actually, I don't think that Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, even the United States are countries that we want
09:00to pour our money into.
09:02Why don't we keep our money here in Europe and let's make more green energy?
09:06But in the end term, what do we do?
09:07Because it takes time.
09:08Well, actually, it's very quick.
09:10The renewables are so much better than nuclear when we speak about the time, how quickly we can build it.
09:17As I told, we are too late, but it's a good time to start a very big time.
09:24And speaking of time, it's interesting what China has been doing.
09:26Massive energy stockpiles, aggressively building them over the last couple of years to protect themselves from oil shocks and geopolitical
09:34tensions.
09:34Can 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.
09:45Look at the solar panels, for example.
09:48The solar panel industry has been completely destroyed in Europe.
09:51That's a pity.
09:52So, I can agree that to a certain extent, we need to diversify the energy mix in Europe.
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.
10:11Like the Chinese, they are building it so cheap, so quickly.
10:14Actually, at the moment, we should not try to win the competition on solar panels, but many other issues.
10:21Like now, we are fighting about electric cars and this is a competition we cannot lose, this competition.
10:27China, it's actually a fierce capitalist competition inside China, but outside they are dumping prices.
10:34Actually, both China and the US, they are very much taking care of their own benefit.
10:39And in the European Union, we have been living on this neoliberal dream that there is a free market that
10:43will solve all the problems.
10:45And this is the main problem.
10:46But I don't think that it's only the Commission or the European Union to blame.
10:49I think, again, it's the member states that have been building this system, together, of course, with the European Union.
10:55That's the view from the MEPs we'd like to hear as well.
10:57Who do you think is to blame?
10:59You can always write to us at the ring at yournews.com.
11:01But, gentlemen, I want to stop you there as we're just getting into it.
11:08So, now it's time to give our viewers a real insight into the European Parliament Chamber, where MEPs address questions
11:14to each other.
11:16That means that our MEPs can directly challenge each other, just like you do inside the hemicycle.
11:21And I know you sit on other sides of the hemicycle, so you don't know each other.
11:24So, I'm glad that you're meeting here on the ring.
11:26Yussi Seramo, the floor is yours.
11:27Okay, I would like to ask you, you have been voting against the proposal to face out Russian gas imports.
11:37And we know that Russia is having a war in Europe, attacking us, and we are using a lot of
11:41money to secure ourselves from Russia.
11:44So, how good idea is to support Putin's war chest?
11:49Well, Russia aggressed Ukraine, and there's no question about that.
11:54The question is about the impact of sanctions on European citizens and European companies.
12:03And we do see hypocrisy, because, for example, there are sanctions, but nevertheless, President Macron didn't stop importing Russian liquefied
12:15natural gas.
12:15So, we think that we should avoid this hypocrisy, and we should just make sure that we secure our own
12:27needs.
12:28Very briefly, are you satisfied with that answer?
12:30Well, not actually, because I agree that there is hypocrisy in Europe, but it's not a reason to support Putin's
12:38war.
12:38If somebody else is hypocrisy, why should we keep supporting the war?
12:43No, we don't support Russian war.
12:46As this was just said, there is India, for example, helping, well, circumventing EU sanctions.
12:55Even President Trump was hesitating about, well, sanctions against Russia.
13:03So, the European Union should wake up and look at its own interests and the interests of its own companies,
13:11its own consumers.
13:12And from my perspective, we should, let's say, not shift from, one, dependency on Russian oil to dependency on American
13:21liquefied gas or any other source.
13:24Fabrice, it's time for you now to address your first question.
13:27Well, what do you think about the success or the shortage of the green policy that has been implemented in
13:38the European Union?
13:40It depends very much which country you talk about.
13:43I'm coming from Finland, and we have the cheapest or the second cheapest electricity in Europe, and we have been
13:49implementing the green transition very well.
13:51We have nuclear power, old nuclear power, and actually the Finnish government was dreaming and they were already having a
14:00contract to build more Russian nuclear power, which we were against because, and we were called Russophobes by the right
14:07wing.
14:07But, 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.
14:16But I think it's something that always should be discussed by a very coherent way, and not just like nuclear
14:25power itself, it's not the solution, or wind is not a solution, solar is not a solution.
14:31We need all of them.
14:32What about the sanctions?
14:34Because we've just mentioned the sanctions against Russia.
14:37Coming from Finland, of course, you are really aware of the Russian threat.
14:42So, how do you assess the policy followed by other member states, just as Germany or other big countries, when
14:52they decided, in a very ideologic way, to impose sanctions without having any kind of assessment on the internal consequences?
15:02Brief answer.
15:03Yeah, Finnish economy is very bad at the moment, and one reason is, of course, this war, and sanctions don't
15:10help our economy, that's clear.
15:12But I would say that the Finnish people, a very broad majority of us, support the sanctions, because we see
15:17that Russia has been doing, not only in Ukraine, in Moldova, in Georgia, everywhere where they find weaknesses with their
15:25neighbors, they have been very aggressive and having wars.
15:28And we know that we cannot tell Putin that it's okay to do what he's doing.
15:32So, I think the Finnish people are very not happy with the sanctions, but they see it as a minor
15:37threat.
15:38Okay, you'll see time for your next question.
15:39When you are against the Green Deal, and you know that nuclear power is so slow to build, and you
15:44are giving that as an answer, what do you promise for the people between this?
15:48Well, in fact, we promise that we will avoid any kind of ideological decision, and there is too much ideology
15:58in Brussels.
15:59And the Green Agenda driven by the European Commission, driven by the German Greens, in fact, has led the European
16:08Union and the EU Member States to a really difficult situation that we realized when the Russian aggression started against
16:18Ukraine.
16:19And overnight, we had to impose sanctions on Russia, that's fine, but we had no alternative, and we had to
16:28shift our dependency to the United States.
16:31And, of course, it's also worth pointing out to our viewers that the Green Agenda has slightly shifted now to
16:34the clean industrial agenda, and this whole idea of the Green Deal is barely mentioned now with the new tone
16:39inside the European Commission.
16:40But we've heard from you, we've heard from the MEPs, and I'd like now to bring in a new voice
16:44here.
16:49I'd like to bring in now the voice of President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking at a press conference alongside the French
16:54President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
16:56He said, I believe that lifting sanctions will, in any case, lead to a strengthening of Russia's position.
17:02It spends the money from energy sales on weapons, and all of this is then used against us.
17:08And, of course, you must have seen this week that due to the crisis in the Middle East, President Donald
17:12Trump has eased sanctions on all countries buying Russian oil for one month.
17:16And President Zelensky clearly not impressed with this decision.
17:19What is your view here?
17:20In fact, we see that there is hypocrisy, and it's always the same pattern that the European Union...
17:28What's your view on what President Trump has done?
17:30What President Trump is doing?
17:32Well, the crisis in the Middle East is much broader.
17:37There is geopolitics, there is Iran being a threat to its own people, because we should not forget.
17:45So, do you support what he's done?
17:47I'm saying that we will not regret if the Islamist regime in Tehran collapses, we will not regret that regime.
17:56And we should also take into account that the nuclear threat represented potentially by Iran is huge for the region
18:04there,
18:04for Arab countries neighboring Iran, for Israel, and for a part of Europe.
18:09Okay, let's bring in the view of Yossi Sadamo on this point.
18:11Well, it's clear that Iran is a horrible, theocratic regime for its people.
18:17And these brave people, 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.
18:25But then, when we talk about what Trump is doing, actually, I think Trump, Netanyahu, Putin, even the Iranese regime,
18:34it's the same.
18:35It's like the autocratic men, very extreme rights regimes that you are using the religion as an example,
18:43are committing war crimes, are against equality and human rights.
18:48And they are all trying to break the international law and justice.
18:54And this is something that we cannot...
18:55So, what should the European Union be doing here to try and stop this war?
18:57There's a difference between an Iranian regime, which is a terrorist threat, sponsoring terrorism all around the globe,
19:05and democracies in the United States, in Israel, and, of course, in Europe.
19:11You know, I just wanted to add that bombing schools doesn't help the Iranese people on their fight.
19:17Actually, it makes the regime even more legitimate on the eyes of many.
19:22And now what we are doing, that we should call the Trump's bluff.
19:26Because his hand, you know, no matter if we talk about NATO, taxation, tariffs, climate change, whatever we talk,
19:33he's blackmailing us.
19:34And the European leaders always, in the end, they say, OK, do whatever.
19:39And they are even supporting it, even in Iran.
19:42And, of course, Donald Trump was the elephant in the room of that EU summit that took place here in
19:45Brussels this week.
19:46But let's just take a short break here on The Ring.
19:49But stay with us, because we'll be back very soon here with some more Political Punch.
20:01Welcome back to The Ring, EU News' weekly debating show.
20:05I'm joined by MEPs Fabrice Lageri and Yusuf Saramo.
20:09And the idea here is to bring the European Parliament debates to your very sofa.
20:13This 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 shifting in very unexpected ways.
20:25The US President Donald Trump has expanded a temporary sanctions waiver, allowing countries to purchase Russian oil.
20:30But who are the top buyers of Russian oil?
20:33That is what we're taking a look at.
20:35India with about 40 percent.
20:37China with about 30 percent.
20:39And then Turkey with 10 percent of the Russian seaborne crude.
20:43Sanctions, of course, have been a big part of the EU policies against Russian since the invasion.
20:48But the question is, of course, is Russia actually feeling it?
20:51Gentleman, a reaction there to that data.
20:53Fabrice?
20:53Well, I'm not surprised by the figures.
20:55In order to make EU sanctions really effective, we should have coordinated our measures with other big players in the
21:04world.
21:04Is Vladimir Putin the big winner of this war?
21:07Definitely.
21:09The 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 been very
21:19low.
21:20And now, after Trump's manoeuvres, the prices are going up.
21:25What Putin is getting, and that's very bad for us.
21:28It's very bad for everyone.
21:29But now that the European Union has just this year signed a historic trade deal with India,
21:33does 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.
21:46She compares herself with Donald Trump, with Chinese leadership and so on.
21:52But in fact, she has just weakened the, in fact, the position of the EU.
21:58Would you agree with what Fabrice has just said?
22:00Well, I agree maybe with some slightly different reasons, but it's true.
22:03I said that we should call the Trump's bluff.
22:06And actually, he doesn't have as good hands on the, of cards on his hand, what he's blaming.
22:12U.S. is a superpower, thanks to Europe.
22:16And if we say no, it's true.
22:18If von der Leyen says no to Trump when he's blackmailing us, Trump doesn't care.
22:22But the markets, they care.
22:24And always, men, the markets go down.
22:26If Trump says, OK, let's put 80% 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.
22:34And after that, the Trump has to listen to us.
22:36But this is the weakness, but it's not only von der Leyen.
22:39It's Mertz.
22:40It's the whole EPP, this group that is leading the European Union, that it's very weak and
22:44they should find their spine.
22:46We need to be tough players.
22:48And I think that if they are bargaining...
22:52But Esther von der Leyen is trying to be tough.
22:54But when she's tough, you say she's overstepping her line.
22:56She is not, because she doesn't have a mandate to do so.
23:00So will the EU only work if we have a proper government structure, with an elected president
23:04and proper ministers, instead of 27 commissioners?
23:07Well, this is a very big discussion.
23:09But actually, I agree that we should, like, we have now Orban, we have Fitcher, we have
23:15the fifth column inside the European Union.
23:18Some are playing for Trump, some are playing for Putin.
23:21And it's one of the reasons why Europe is weak, that we are so divided.
23:25And, of course, you mentioned two very important leaders of Hungary and Slovakia,
23:29who, of course, are still very much reliant on Russian oil.
23:31That's why we've seen as well, and we've been reporting about for weeks here, about
23:34that Drozba pipeline, the big splash between Ukraine and Hungary.
23:39Orban'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.
23:54And the French members represent the biggest part of the...
24:00But 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.
24:22We consider that international relations and foreign affairs is a sovereign national issue.
24:29But is it enough to hijack, then, the €90 billion 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.
24:46And coming from France, I can see what President 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,
25:02the European Commission and the Germans to develop also debts 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,
25:17they will collapse. And that will be not just terrible for all the Ukrainians,
25:21but it will be terrible for the whole Europe.
25:24And we are always cleaning the mess that the U.S. is doing in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, wherever.
25:31This is something that we don't have to touch.
25:33Maybe we cannot stop them killing people. We cannot stop Netanyahu making genocide.
25:38But we should not support them.
25:39But when we are in Europe, we have to do all we can 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.
25:54Are 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.
26:24Should 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?
26:37Yes 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.
26:48Yes or no?
26:48Should natural gas still be used as a transition fuel, yes or no?
26:53A small part, yes.
26:54What about you?
26:55Yes or no?
26:56Are EU-US ties in ruins, yes or no?
26:59They should be.
27:01They are.
27:02Yes.
27:03What about you?
27:03Yes or no?
27:04No.
27:05And final question for you both?
27:06Will this crisis slow down the green transition?
27:10Should not, but it looks like we have irresponsible politicians, so yes.
27:16What about you?
27:17Yes.
27:17Yes 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 TheRing at Euronews.com and tell us how you feel about the current
27:36energy crisis and the role of the European Union here.
27:39Take care and see you soon on Euronews.
27:42Hope We'll see you soon on Euronews.
27:43See you soon on Euronews.
27:46There it is.
27:46We'll be right back If we can take care政als.
27:47We'll see you soon on Euronews.
27:48We'll see you soon on Euronews.
27:49People's been a part of Euronews.
27:50We'll see you soon on Euronews.
27:52Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020
Kommentare

Empfohlen