Debate: Russia’s escalation of its war of aggression against Ukraine
Date: WEDNESDAY, 5 OCTOBER 2022
Speaker: Maroš Šefčovič
Language: EN

I really would like to thank all the honourable Members for what I felt was truly overwhelming support and solidarity with the Ukrainian people. I think that we can also state that every day, we see that our support is crucial, that it works and that it brings tangible results. No sham referendums are going to change that.  I agree with Mr Auštrevičius and with Mr Millán Mon that the decisions we are taking today will frame the European and, I would say, global security for many decades. Almost all of you honourable Members highlighted how important the unity and solidarity are to deal with current energy prices and high inflation. As Ms Vautmans has said, this is a time for truly European solutions because only that approach will bring the results we need.  You know that, together with your support, we already did a lot. We reduced gas consumption, we decreased the gas supplies coming from Russia in a significant manner and we filled up our gas storages. But we all know that more is needed and therefore, we are going to skim off the exceptional profits of the energy companies to support vulnerable citizens and businesses. Thanks to the excellent work of the Czech Presidency, we already found an agreement on REPowerEU to provide additional resources in those efforts.  It is clear that the next days will be of crucial importance for pushing our actions to the next level. President von der Leyen will send a roadmap in a letter to prepare the ground for the meeting of EU leaders in Prague. We will complement it with our negotiations with trusted partners, such as, for example, Norway, to dampen the price we pay for energy. And we are going to use much more our strong market power as a big economy and very important energy importer.  I am sure that our suppliers, especially our friends and allies, want not only to conclude the deals which are beneficial for both sides, but they also want to support us in our principled positions to help Ukraine and further increase pressure on the Russian aggressors. We want to make sure that we will take advantage of our big internal market and we will strengthen our energy platform to avoid a situation where Member States are competing with each other, but rather we would work with them to support a common approach. To take on the inflationary impact of gas on electricity, today, the President of the Commission was very clear in sending clear signals on our readiness to discuss a cap on price for gas for generating electricity. We see it as another step not only to develop the new post-TTF price benchmark, but also to structurally reform our electricity market as called for by Mr Jadot or Ms Van Brempt, and to do it in a way that will not only decouple gas from its unproportional impact on electricity price, but to forge a new framework which will correspond to our goals to be a climate—neutral continent by 2050.  On top of this, we are working on the adaptation of a temporary state aid framework to the current energy situation. I want to assure you that we hear very loud and clear your calls to look for additional ways on how to tackle high inflation, reduce energy prices and preserve our competitiveness and, most importantly, for our citizens to uphold social standards in Europe.  There have been concrete questions by Mr Mureşan on Moldova. Just to be very brief, on top of our budgetary support and our macro financial assistance in more than EUR 225 million together, we are also helping through the EIB and we are helping by sending out Frontex officers to deal with the migratory flows.  I also want to acknowledge the very clear questions and points by Ms Fritzon and Ms Kumpula-Natri concerning the visas for Russians. Here, I think the very concrete guidelines proposed by my colleague Ylva Johansson are the best way forward.  To Mr Bart Groothuis, I want to reassure him that we are ready to explore all possibilities, to look for additional avenues on how to better protect our critical infrastructure. I will be looking forward to our cooperation in that regard.  So to conclude, honourable Members, I would really like to thank you for today’s debate, for bringing also new ideas to the table, and to really make sure that, as we always do, we will prevail through this crisis and we will emerge stronger from this very challenging experience.