Passer au playerPasser au contenu principal
  • il y a 2 jours
La crise énergétique frappe l'Europe - Qui en paie le prix ? Les députés européens s'affrontent sur The Ring

Dans cette nouvelle édition de The Ring, diffusée depuis le Parlement européen à Bruxelles, les députés Fabrice Leggeri (Patriotes pour l'Europe) et Jussi Saramo (La Gauche) débattent de la stratégie énergétique de l'Europe alors que les tensions géopolitiques secouent les marchés mondiaux.

LIRE L’ARTICLE : http://fr.euronews.com/2026/03/20/la-crise-energetique-frappe-leurope-qui-en-paie-le-prix-les-deputes-europeens-saffrontent-

Abonnez-vous à notre chaine. Euronews est disponible sur Dailymotion en 12 langues

Catégorie

🗞
News
Transcription
00:08Hello there and welcome to The Ring, your news's debating show, broadcasting from the European Parliament here in Brussels.
00:16On The Ring, elected members of the European Parliament go face to face on some of the major challenges facing
00:23Brussels today, with the war in the Middle East raging on.
00:26For this episode, we're honing in on the crucial topic of energy independence and strategic autonomy in the European Union
00:34and how to address this conundrum.
00:37As 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.
00:46In 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.
01:01European Council President Antonio Costa called the move a unilateral decision that is very concerning,
01:07warning it could affect European security 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.
01:52You see Saddamo, 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,
02:03briefly 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.
03:47Europe 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.
06:42And, 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.
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.
07:03It's a bit stupid to stop it, but 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, we should make the green transition more quicker, then it is
07:25not 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, like it took so long to build the same
07:40problems 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 a nuclear power
07:53plant.
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 you, 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.
09:46Look 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.
10:15Actually, 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.
14:13We 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.
14:26It's not the solution.
14:28Or wind is not a solution.
14:30Solar 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?
15:02Yeah, Finnish economy is very bad at the moment.
15:06And one reason is, of course, this war and sanctions don't help our economy.
15:11That'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,
15:22and everywhere where they find weaknesses with their neighbors, they have been very aggressive and having wars.
15:28And we know that we cannot tell Putin that it's OK to do what he's doing.
15:32So I think the Finnish people are not happy with the sanctions, but they see it as a minor trend.
15:38OK, 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 an answer, what do you promise for the people between this?
15:49Well, in fact, we promise that we will avoid any kind of ideological decision.
15:56And there is too much ideology in 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
16:13that we realized when the Russian aggression started against Ukraine.
16:19And overnight, we had to impose sanctions on Russia.
16:24That's fine.
16:25But we had no alternative and we had to shift 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.
16:36And this whole idea of the Green Deal is barely mentioned now with the new tone inside the European Commission.
16:40But we've heard from you.
16:41We've heard from the MEPs.
16:42And I'd like now to bring in a new voice here.
16:48I'd like to bring in now the voice of President Volodymyr Zelensky,
16:51speaking at a press conference alongside the French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
16:56He said,
16:57I 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.
17:05And 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,
17:11President Donald Trump 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.
17:24And 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.
17:39There 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.
17:49If 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.
18:08Okay, 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.
18:54So, 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.
19:12You 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, because his hand, you know,
19:27no matter if you talk about NATO, taxation, tariffs, climate change, whatever we talk, he's blackmailing us.
19:34And the European leaders always, in the end, they say, OK, do whatever, and they're even supporting it, even in
19:41Iran.
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 Legeri 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 U.S. 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.
21:14But 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, what 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, does Brussels have
21:34more leverage now, perhaps, with counterparts there?
21:36Well, the problem is that President von der Leyen, president of the commission, behaves as she had the power to
21:45be a big player.
21:47She 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 European Union.
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.
22:05And actually, he doesn't have a good hand of cards on his hand at what he's blaming.
22:12The U.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, Trump has to listen to us.
22:37But this is the weakness.
22:38But 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.
22:44And they 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,
23:03with an elected president and proper ministers, instead of 27 commissioners?
23:07Well, this is a very big discussion.
23:09But actually, I agree that we should...
23:12Like, 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.
23:21And it's one of the reasons why Europe is weak,
23:24that 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.
23:33And we've been reporting about for weeks here about that Drozba pipeline,
23:36the big splash between Ukraine and Hungary.
23:38Orban'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?
24:32Well, we are against this loan because it's not, in our views, in the long-term interest of European citizens.
24:41Because 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, the European Commission and the Germans
25:03to develop also debts at the European Union level.
25:07So that's our concern.
25:08It's not about Russia or Ukraine.
25:10It's about our own interest.
25:12I think it's all about Ukraine.
25:14If 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 whole Europe.
25:23And 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.
25:35We 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 that
25:48Russia is having all their borders.
25:49But on that point, we can move on now to our fifth and final round.
25:54Are you all set?
25:55Ready.
25:56Ready.
26:00To finalise now, it is time for something a little bit different.
26:02I'm going to be asking our MEPs a set of questions.
26:05And 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?
26:46Yes or no?
26:46No.
26:47Yes.
26:48Yes or no?
26:48Should natural gas still be used as a transition fuel?
26:52Yes or no?
26:53A small part, yes.
26:54What about you?
26:55Yes or no?
26:56Are EU-US ties in ruins?
26:59Yes 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 responsible 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 The Ring 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.
27:42We'll see you soon on Euronews.
27:49– Sous-titrage FR 2021
Commentaires

Recommandations