- 32 minuti fa
La crisi energetica colpisce l'Europa: chi ne paga il prezzo? Gli eurodeputati si scontrano sul Ring
In questa nuova edizione di The Ring, trasmessa dal Parlamento europeo a Bruxelles, gli eurodeputati Fabrice Leggeri (Patriots for Europe) e Jussi Saramo (The Left) discutono della strategia energetica dell'Europa mentre le tensioni geopolitiche scuotono i mercati globali.
ALTRE INFORMAZIONI : http://it.euronews.com/2026/03/20/la-crisi-energetica-colpisce-leuropa-chi-ne-paga-il-prezzo-gli-eurodeputati-si-scontrano-s
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In questa nuova edizione di The Ring, trasmessa dal Parlamento europeo a Bruxelles, gli eurodeputati Fabrice Leggeri (Patriots for Europe) e Jussi Saramo (The Left) discutono della strategia energetica dell'Europa mentre le tensioni geopolitiche scuotono i mercati globali.
ALTRE INFORMAZIONI : http://it.euronews.com/2026/03/20/la-crisi-energetica-colpisce-leuropa-chi-ne-paga-il-prezzo-gli-eurodeputati-si-scontrano-s
Abbonati, euronews è disponibile in 12 lingue.
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00:08Hello there and welcome to The Ring, your news's 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 Santa Marin. 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 taxes on oil are not too high. And this is the first measure that should
04:31be
04:31decided at the national level. Germany should have been doing a lot of stuff already years ago,
04:36so 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.
04:54And 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 price
05:24is
05:24that, in fact, the European Union is dependent on both. Now we are dependent on the liquefied
05:33natural gas. So we are dependent on the US. We stop the dependency or reduce the dependency on Russia.
05:40But we don't have an alternative. And we should invest more in European capacities. That's, of course,
05:46the internal debate going on right now here. Would you agree what he just said, that Brussels is to blame
05:50here?
05:50No, actually. I think it's the member states to blame. And we have European problems. Let's say the
05:56grids. Like in France, we have a lot of nuclear power. In Germany, they have totally different energy
06:03mix, actually a very problematic energy mix, because they were so dependent on Russia. But now we don't
06:08have good grids to transfer the energy in Europe. And that's one of the reasons that we could have
06:14cheaper energy almost everywhere if the grids would work. But, of course, always there are some countries that
06:19would win more and some countries could even lose. And that's why we don't have yet European solutions.
06:25And we're always hearing about this term of energy union. But, of course, we're very far from that.
06:29Yeah, we are far from that. We have to blame the German policy in the past years,
06:34because it was driven by a green agenda, banning or shutting down nuclear plants in Germany. And as a
06:44consequence, 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. So are
07:09you in favor of
07:10nuclear? Was it a mistake for countries to start closing their nuclear plants? Well, I think if you
07:14have an old nuclear power plant that is working well, that it's safe in this kind of situation,
07:20where we are having the transformation, we should make the green transition more quicker, then it is
07:25not wise to shut it down. But thinking about building new nuclear power plants, actually,
07:30we were building a French nuclear power plant to Finland. And it's one of the most expensive buildings in
07:36the world. Like it took so long to build the same problems everywhere in the world. It's so slow,
07:42so expensive. If we want to answer to people's problems today, this decade, we need to build
07:51renewables, not a nuclear power. Renewables. Public opinion, Fabrice, is divided when it comes to
07:56nuclear. In 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. So they also have
08:06to be informed about the consequence of not being independent. And my concern is that Europe or European
08:14countries are not self-standing. They 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. This is the
08:28EU's plan to diversify their energy dependence. Is this a good idea? Do you support the fact that
08:32he's spending time and working with Azerbaijan? We can always find a new authoritarian dictatorship,
08:39new area where we can buy the oil. But the problem is the market. Like now, if we don't buy
08:44the Russian
08:44fossils, somebody else will do. So actually, the more we buy fossils, the bigger the problem is no matter
08:50if we are responsible. And actually, I don't think that Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, even
08:59United States are countries that we want to pour our money into. Why don't we keep our money here in
09:03Europe? And let's make more green energy. But in the interim, what do we do? Because it takes time.
09:08Well, actually, it's very quick. The renewables are so much better than nuclear. When we speak about the
09:14time, how quickly we can build it. As I told, we are too late. But it's a good time to
09:21start a very
09:23big time. And speaking of time, it's interesting what China has been doing. Massive energy stockpiles,
09:28aggressively building them over the last couple of years to protect themselves from oil shocks
09:32and geopolitical tensions. Can the EU ever catch up, Fabrice, with China? Well, I'm afraid that the
09:40the policy driven by the European Commission put us in the hands of China. Look at the solar panels,
09:47for example. The solar panel industry has been completely destroyed in Europe. That's a pity.
09:53So I can agree that to a certain extent, we need to diversify the energy mix in Europe. But why
10:01don't we have in Europe our own solar panels? I think solar panels is something that we were
10:09the best in the world and we are not anymore. Like the Chinese, they are building it
10:13so cheap, so quickly. Actually, at the moment, we should not try to win the competition on solar
10:18panels, but many other issues. Like now we are fighting about electric cars. And this is a competition
10:25we are not, we cannot lose this competition. China, it's actually, it's a fierce capitalist competition
10:31inside China. But outside, they are dumping prices. Actually, both China and US, they are very
10:37much taking care of their own benefit. And in the European Union, we have been living on this
10:41neoliberal dream that there's a free market that will solve all the problems. And this is the main
10:45problem. 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
10:59can always write to us at the ring at yournews.com. But gentlemen, I want to stop you there as
11:03we're
11:03just getting into it.
11:08So now it's time to give our viewers a real insight into the European Parliament chamber,
11:13where MEPs address questions to each other. That means that our MEPs can directly challenge each
11:18other, just like you do inside the hemicycle. And I know you sit on other sides of the hemicycle,
11:23so you don't know each other. So I'm glad that you're meeting here on the ring. Yussi Sadamo,
11:26the floor is yours.
11:28Okay, 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 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,
12:30not actually, because I agree that there is hypocrisy in Europe. But it's not a reason to support Putin's
12:38war. If somebody else is hypocrisy, why should we keep supporting the war? No,
12:43we don't support Russian Russian war. As this was just said, there is India, for example, helping
12:53while circumventing EU sanctions. Even 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 interest of its own
13:10companies, its own consumers. And from my perspective, we should, let's say, not shift from one dependency on
13:18Russian oil to dependency on American liquefied gas or any other source. Fabrice, it's time for
13:25you now to address your first question. Well, what do you think about the success or the
13:33shortage of the green policy that has been implemented in the European Union?
13:40Well, it depends very much which country you talk about. I'm coming from Finland and we have the
13:45cheapest or the second cheapest electricity in Europe. And we have been implementing the green
13:50transition very well. We have nuclear power, old nuclear power. And actually, the Finnish government was
13:57dreaming and they were already having the contracts to build more Russian nuclear power, which we were
14:03against because and we were called russophobes by the right wing. But like when we talk about the energy
14:10palette, it should be brought. So we need the renewables. We need nuclear if you still have it. But I
14:17think it's
14:19something that always should be discussed by a very coherent way and not just like nuclear power itself.
14:26It's not the solution or wind is not a solution. Solar is not a solution. We need all of them.
14:32What about the sanctions? Because we we've just mentioned the sanctions against Russia coming from Finland.
14:38of course, you are really aware of the Russian threat. So how do you assess the policy followed by other
14:47member states, just as Germany or other big countries, when they decided in a very ideologic way to impose
14:56sanctions without having any kind of assessment on the internal conflict?
15:02The Finnish economy is very bad at the moment. And one reason is, of course, this war and sanctions
15:10don't help our economy. That's clear. But I would say that the Finnish people, a very broad majority of us
15:15support the sanctions because we see that Russia has been doing not only in Ukraine, in Moldova,
15:21in Georgia and everywhere where they find weaknesses with their neighbors. They have been very aggressive
15:27and having wars. And we know that we cannot tell Putin that it's OK to do what he's doing. So
15:33I think the
15:33Finnish people are very not happy with the sanctions, but they see it as a minor threat.
15:38OK, you'll see time for your next question. When you are against the Green Deal and you know that nuclear
15:42power is
15:43so slow to build and you are giving that 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
15:57much ideology in Brussels. And the Green agenda driven by the European Commission, driven by the German Greens,
16:05in fact, has led the European Union and the EU member states to a really difficult situation that we
16:14realized when the Russian aggression started against Ukraine. And overnight we had to impose sanctions
16:22on Russia. That's fine. But 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
16:34shifted now to the clean industrial agenda. And this whole idea of the Green Deal is barely mentioned
16:38now with the new tone inside the European Commission. But we've heard from you, we'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 speaking at a press conference
16:53alongside the French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. He said, I believe that lifting sanctions
16:58will in any case lead to a strengthening of Russia's position. It spends the money from energy
17:04sales on weapons. And all of this is then used against us. And of course, you must have seen this
17:09week that due to the crisis in the Middle East, President Donald Trump has eased sanctions on all
17:14countries buying Russian oil for one month. And President Zelensky clearly not impressed with this
17:19decision. What is your view here? In fact, we see that there is hypocrisy. And it's always the same
17:26pattern that the European Union... What's your view on what President Trump has done?
17:30What President Trump is doing? Well, the crisis in the Middle East is much broader. There are...
17:38There 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 the Islamist regime in Tehran collapses, we will not
17:55regret that regime. And we should also take into account that the nuclear threat represented
18:00potentially by Iran is huge for the region there, for Arab countries neighboring Iran,
18:06for Israel, and for a part of Europe. Okay, 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. And these brave people,
18:19thousands of them have lost their lives fighting against the regime. So, of course,
18:23I want to support the Iranese people to fight for their liberty. But then, when we talk about what
18:28Trump is doing, actually, I think Trump, Netanyahu, Putin, even the Iranese regime, it's the same.
18:35It's like the autocratic men, very extreme rights regimes that you are using the religion as an
18:43example, are committing war crimes, are against equality and human rights. And they are all trying
18:50to break the international law and justice. And this is something that we cannot...
18:55What 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
19:04all around the globe, and 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 Iranian people on their fight.
19:17Actually, it makes the regime even more legitimate on the eyes of many. And now what we are doing,
19:23is that we should call the Trump's bluff. Because his hand, you know, no matter if you talk about
19:29NATO, taxation, tariffs, climate change, whatever we talk, he's blackmailing us. And the European
19:35leaders always, in the end, they say, OK, do whatever. And they're 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
19:45in Brussels this week. But let's just take a short break here on The Ring. But stay with us,
19:49because we'll be back very soon here with some more political punch.
20:01Welcome back to The Ring, EU News' weekly debating show. I'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. This week,
20:13we're focusing on how the war in Iran is affecting European consumers. As global energy markets react
20:19to disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz, trade flows are shifting in very unexpected ways. The
20:25US President Donald Trump has expanded a temporary sanctions waiver, allowing countries to purchase
20:29Russian oil. But who are the top buyers of Russian oil? That is what we're taking a look at. India,
20:35with about 40%. China, with about 30%. And then Turkey, with 10% of the Russian seaborne crude.
20:43Sanctions, of course, have been a big part of the EU policies against Russia since the invasion. But
20:48the question is, of course, is Russia actually feeling it? Gentlemen, a reaction there to that data.
20:53Fabrice? Well, 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? Definitely. The sanctions, even they haven't
21:11been working as well as we have been hoping. But the sanctions have been working on one issue,
21:16that the price that Russia has been getting has been very low. And now, after Trump's maneuvers,
21:23the prices are going up, what Putin is getting. And 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,
21:34does 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, in fact,
21:56the position of the European Union. Would you agree with what Fabrice has just said?
22:00Well, I agree maybe with some slightly different reasons, but it's true. I said that we should call
22:04the Trump's bluff. And actually, he doesn't have as good hands of cards on his hand, what he's blaming.
22:13The US is a superpower, thanks to Europe. And if we say no, it's true if von der Leyen says
22:19no to Trump,
22:20when 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. It's
22:39Mertz. It's the whole EPP.
22:41This group that it's leading the European Union, that it's very weak and they should find their spine.
22:46We need to be tough players. And I think that if they are bargaining...
22:53But Ursula von der Leyen is trying to be tough. But 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. So the EU only work if we have
23:02a proper
23:02government structure with an elected president and proper ministers instead of 27 commissioners.
23:07Well, this is a very big discussion. But actually, I agree that we should like...
23:12We have now Orban. We have Fitcher. We have the fifth column inside the European Union. Some are
23:18playing 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 and Slovakia,
23:29who, of course, are still very much reliant on Russian oil. That's why we've seen as well. And we've been
23:33reporting about for weeks here about that Drozba pipeline, the big spash between Ukraine and Hungary.
23:38Can I ask, Orban's party, Fidesz, it's your biggest ally here in Brussels. Why aren't you
23:45pushing 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
23:59of the countries. But 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
24:25relations and foreign affairs is a sovereign national issue. But is it enough to hijack
24:31then the 90 billion euro loan for Ukraine? Well, we are against this loan because it's not,
24:37in our views, in the long term interest of European citizens, because that means that the European
24:43Union now is developing huge debts. And coming from France, I can see what President Macron did.
24:50So he increased French debt by 50% in the past 10 years. And we see a pattern now that
24:59President
24:59Macron has convinced, obviously, the European Commission and the Germans to develop also debt
25:05at the European Union level. So that's our concern. It's not about Russia or Ukraine. It's about our own
25:12interest. I think it's all about Ukraine. If they cannot defend themselves, if they cannot feed their
25:16people, they will collapse. And that will be not just terrible for all the Ukrainians, but it will
25:21be terrible for the for the whole Europe. And we are always cleaning the mess that U.S. is doing
25:27in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, wherever. This is something that we don't have to touch with. Maybe we cannot
25:34stop them killing people. We 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 Russian
25:48is having all their borders. But on that point, we can move on now to our fifth and final round.
25:54Are you all set? Ready. Ready.
25:59To finalize now, it is time for something a little bit different. I'm going to be asking our MEPs a
26:04set of questions and you can only answer with yes or no. Is that doable? Yes, I hope so.
26:11Should nuclear energy be classified as green? Yes.
26:20This is complicated, but let's say yes. Should all EU countries be investing in nuclear?
26:27Yes. No. Should EU funding be helping support nuclear energy? Yes. No.
26:34Is hydrogen energy a good solution? Yes or no? No. Yes. Usually, yes.
26:42Should the EU ban fossil fuel use by 2040? Yes or no? No. Yes. No.
26:48Should natural gas still be used as a transition fuel? Yes or no? A small part, yes. What about you?
26:55Yes or no? Yes. Are EU-US ties in ruins? Yes or no? They should be. They are. Yes. What
27:03about you?
27:03Yes or no? No. And final question for you both. Will this crisis slow down the green transition?
27:10Should not. But it looks like we have irresponsible politicians, so yes.
27:16Yes. What about you? Yes or no? Well, that final answer does bring this edition of The Ring to an
27:22end.
27:22Thank you so much, Fabrice Legeri and Yussi Sadamo for being our guests. It's been great to hear your views
27:27and your insights. But of course, what about you? Let us know what you think about what we've been
27:31discussing. You can write to us at thering at yournews.com and tell us how you feel about the current
27:36energy crisis and the role of the European Union here. Take care and see you soon on your own news.
27:42We'll see you soon on your own news.
27:42We'll see you soon on your own news.
27:46We'll see you soon on your own news.
27:47We'll see you soon on your own news.
27:47We'll see you soon on your own news.
27:48We'll see you soon on your own news.
27:49We'll see you soon on your own news.
27:50We'll see you soon on your own news.
27:50We'll see you soon on your own news.
27:51We'll see you soon on your own news.
27:52We'll see you soon on your own news.
27:52Grazie a tutti.
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