Debate: REPowerEU chapters in recovery and resilience plans
Date: MONDAY, 13 FEBRUARY 2023
Speaker: Dragoş Pîslaru
Country: Spain
Language: EN

But dear citizens, no winter lasts forever. Every winter has its spring. And this spring it is called REPowerEU. Together with my colleagues, Siegfried Mureşan and Eider Gardiazabal, we team up again and join our forces from different committees. We took each concern one by one and found answers to them. How do we fight fear? With ambition! Citizens had a tough year, barely managing to buy food and basic goods with the increased prices, and now they have to struggle with high energy bills. We can’t let our entrepreneurs, our small businesses alone, we need sustainable solutions now, not later. And we can do that thanks to the REPowerEU, this green instrument that delivers no less than EUR 20 billion to Member States, in addition to the money received through the RRF. Ask your government what energy measures they plan to include in the recovery plans, and make sure you will find how to become more energy efficient, how to diminish your bills. How do we fight insecurity? With secure investments! Our industry is not resilient yet; we need more autonomy and less dependency, and we can achieve that through REPowerEU. The Russian gas and fossil fuels were used as a political and economic weapon. We do not need it because we are right now capable of increased storage, of producing our own energy, but not at any cost. We need to keep our green ambition, and the investment must respect the do ‘no significant harm’ principle. We must use the full force of our natural resources: wind, water, sun to diversify our energy system because we need a clean net zero continent for our citizens, especially for our next generations. On this path towards the green transition, no one must be left behind. Let’s use REPowerEU to renovate the buildings in which poor people are now freezing cold. Let’s help the street corner shops to reduce their energy bills. Let’s support our SMEs to work in energy efficient offices. Let’s invest in reskilling and upskilling to equip our citizens with green and digital skills. And how do we fight darkness? With transparency! How can politicians be credible in the eyes of our citizens, when we cannot show how EU taxpayers’ money is spent. And we explained from the Parliament’s side over and over again that all these billions of Euros must be spent by governments with responsibility, clarity and transparency. It was in vain in the RRF negotiations, and after two years, we still wonder who benefits from the recovery and resilience plans. And now, REPowerEU adds more investments in national plans. So we set up a clear requirement: as of now, each government will need to publish the top 100 beneficiaries receiving funding from the recovery plan. In conclusion, ambition, secure investments, transparency – this is, in a nutshell, what REPowerEU proposes. And now we wait to see how governments will use the money. I hope to find in the updated plans innovative, disruptive and concrete measures for Europe’s energy system. As Benjamin Franklin used to say, energy and persistence conquer all things. Thank you very much, and don’t forget: let’s REPower Europe!