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Energiaválság sújtja Európát - Ki fizeti meg az árát? Összecsapnak az EP-képviselők a Ringben
Az Európai Parlament brüsszeli székházából sugárzott The Ring új kiadásában Fabrice Leggeri (Hazafiak Európáért) és Jussi Saramo (A Baloldal) európai parlamenti képviselők vitáznak Európa energiastratégiájáról, miközben a geopolitikai feszültségek megrengetik a globális piacokat.
BŐVEBBEN : http://hu.euronews.com/2026/03/20/energiavalsag-sujtja-europat-ki-fizeti-meg-az-arat-osszecsapnak-az-ep-kepviselok-a-ringben
Iratkozzon fel: Az Euronews elérhető 12 nyelven
Az Európai Parlament brüsszeli székházából sugárzott The Ring új kiadásában Fabrice Leggeri (Hazafiak Európáért) és Jussi Saramo (A Baloldal) európai parlamenti képviselők vitáznak Európa energiastratégiájáról, miközben a geopolitikai feszültségek megrengetik a globális piacokat.
BŐVEBBEN : http://hu.euronews.com/2026/03/20/energiavalsag-sujtja-europat-ki-fizeti-meg-az-arat-osszecsapnak-az-ep-kepviselok-a-ringben
Iratkozzon fel: Az Euronews elérhető 12 nyelven
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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.
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