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Η ενεργειακή κρίση πλήττει την Ευρώπη - Ποιος πληρώνει το τίμημα; Οι ευρωβουλευτές συγκρούονται στο The Ring
Σε αυτή τη νέα έκδοση του The Ring, που μεταδίδεται από το Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινοβούλιο στις Βρυξέλλες, οι ευρωβουλευτές Fabrice Leggeri (Πατριώτες για την Ευρώπη) και Jussi Saramo (Η Αριστερά) συζητούν για την ενεργειακή στρατηγική της Ευρώπης, καθώς οι γεωπολιτικές εντάσεις συγκλονίζουν τις παγκόσμιες αγορές.
ΔΙΑΒΑΣΤΕ ΕΠΙΣΗΣ : http://gr.euronews.com/2026/03/20/h-energeiakh-krish-plhttei-thn-eyrwph-poios-plhrwnei-to-timhma-oi-eyrwboyleytes-sygkroy
Γίνε συνδρομητής! ! Το euronews είναι διαθέσιμο σε 12 γλώσσες
Σε αυτή τη νέα έκδοση του The Ring, που μεταδίδεται από το Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινοβούλιο στις Βρυξέλλες, οι ευρωβουλευτές Fabrice Leggeri (Πατριώτες για την Ευρώπη) και Jussi Saramo (Η Αριστερά) συζητούν για την ενεργειακή στρατηγική της Ευρώπης, καθώς οι γεωπολιτικές εντάσεις συγκλονίζουν τις παγκόσμιες αγορές.
ΔΙΑΒΑΣΤΕ ΕΠΙΣΗΣ : http://gr.euronews.com/2026/03/20/h-energeiakh-krish-plhttei-thn-eyrwph-poios-plhrwnei-to-timhma-oi-eyrwboyleytes-sygkroy
Γίνε συνδρομητής! ! Το euronews είναι διαθέσιμο σε 12 γλώσσες
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04:28και αυτό είναι η πρώτη μεσία που πρέπει να πρέπει να πρέπει να δημιουργείται στον κόσμο.
04:32Ελλάδα πρέπει να πρέπει να κάνει πολλά πράγματα πένντα,
04:36δηλαδή είναι αρκετά από το πρόσφυνο.
04:38Είμαι πολύ ευχαριστώ που κάνουμε την Ευρώπη συμφωνία στην Ευρωπαϊκή Ένω.
04:42Το πρόβλημα είναι ότι στην πόλεμη, στην κοινωνία του κοινωνικού κοινωνικούς,
04:46υπάρχουν πολλές πολιτικές πόρειες που δεν θέλουν να το φύγει.
04:50Και πιο πρόκλημα που δελείται, πιο πρόκλημα που έχουμε.
04:53Και, of course, in the Netherlands, Dutch drivers are currently paying the highest for their petrol,
04:59around 2.17 per litre, that's huge.
05:01It's huge for every European driver, it'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 town?
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, so we are dependent on the U.S.
05:36We stopped the dependency or reduced the dependency on Russia, but 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?
05:50No, actually, I think it's the member states to blame.
05:53And we have European problems, let's say the grids.
05:56Like in France, we have a lot of nuclear power, and in Germany, they have totally different energy mix, actually
06:03a very problematic energy mix, because they are so dependent on Russia.
06:07But now we don't have good grids to transfer the energy in Europe, and that's one of the reasons that
06:13we 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, and that's
06:23why 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're far from that. We have to blame the German policy in the past years, because it was driven
06:35by a green agenda, banning, shutting 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, it's a bit stupid to stop it, but it's only a very small part of the
07:08problem.
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, 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, and
07:33it'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. It'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. Public opinion, Fabrice, is divided when it comes to nuclear. In countries like Austria, they've had a referendum in
07:58the 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 to
08:07be 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, on
08:21other 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 he's spending
08:32time and working with Azerbaijan?
08:35We can always find a new authoritarian dictatorship, new area where we can buy the oil. But the problem is
08:41the market.
08:42Like, now, if we don't buy the Russian fossiles, somebody else will do. So, actually, the more we buy fossiles,
08:48the 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 interim, what do we do? Because it takes time.
09:09Well, actually, it's very quick. The renewables are so much better than nuclear when we speak about the time, how
09:15quickly 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. Massive energy stockpiles, aggressively building them over the last
09:30couple of years to protect themselves from oil shocks and geopolitical tensions.
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. 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.
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. But I don't think that it's only the Commission or the European Union to
10:49blame.
10:49I think, again, it's the member states that have been building the system together, of course, with the European Union.
10:55That's the view from the MEPs. We'd like to hear as well. Who 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 consequence?
15:02Brief answer.
15:03Yeah, Finnish economy is very bad at the moment.
15:06And one reason is, of course, this war.
15:08And 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.
15:17Because we see that Russia has been doing, not only in Ukraine, in Moldova, in Georgia, everywhere where they find
15:24weaknesses with their neighbors, 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 really not happy with the sanctions, but they see it as a minor
15:37trend.
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.
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.
16:27And 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, we've heard from the MEPs, and I'd like now to bring in a new voice
16:44here.
16:48I'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.
17:07And, 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?
17:21In fact, we see that there is hypocrisy.
17:23And 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.
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.
18:09Okay, 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.
18:26But 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.
19:12You 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.
19:22And now what we are doing, that we should call the Trump's bluff.
19:26Because his hand, you know, no matter if you talk about NATO, taxation, tariffs, climate change,
19:32whatever 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, your News' weekly debating show.
20:05I'm joined by MEPs Fabrice Legeri and Yusuf Saramo.
20:08And 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 Russia since the invasion.
20:48But the question is, of course, is Russia actually feeling it?
20:51Gentlemen, a reaction there to that data.
20:53Fabrice?
20:53Well, I'm not surprised by the figures.
20:56In 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 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?
22:00I 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 as good hands of cards on his hand.
22:11What he's blaming.
22:13U.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, 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,
22:43that it's very weak and they should find their spine.
22:46We need to be tough players.
22:48And I think that if they are bargaining...
22:52But is von der Leyen 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,
23:15we 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, 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,
23:34about 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.
23:43Why 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 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,
24:12and 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,
24:38in 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,
25:01the European Commission and the Germans to 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,
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.
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.
25:50But on that point, we can move on now to our fifth and final round.
25:54Are you all set?
25:54Ready.
25:55Ready.
25:56Ready.
25:59To 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?
26:36Yes or no?
26:38No.
26:39Yes or no?
26:40Usually, yes.
26:42Should the EU ban fossil fuel use by 2040?
26:45Yes or no?
26:46No.
26:47Yes.
26:48Yes or no?
26:48Should natural gas still be used as a transition fuel?
26:51Yes 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, yes.
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.
27:11But 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.
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