Brussels is unruffled by Ukrainian blackmail
Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) MEP accuses the European Commission of deliberately turning a blind eye, while attacking member states.
Without an affordable and secure energy supply, there can be no functioning and competitive market in Europe, MEP Petra Steger of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) told the European Parliament. In her speech the right-wing politician stressed:
„Our industries and companies have been tortured to death for years with growing amounts of bureaucratic red tape, regulations and environmental requirements. Europe hasn’t been competitive for a long time. In the past, only cheap energy saved us. I think it is very fitting that the previous item on the agenda was the report on the future, which calls for a whole range of measures to save our competitiveness – several hundreds of pages worth – and most of them are more detrimental than helpful.”
The Austrian MEP also responded to the so-called Draghi report, a several-hundred-page work in which the former head of the European Central Bank expounded at length on his vision of how to restore European competitiveness.
„It was unnecessary for Draghi to write so much and do so much research, because it is quite simple to stop this left-wing, ideology-driven energy policy in the name of climate protection, which is making energy less available and more expensive. The key word is energy transition. Put an end to this sanctions policy, which affects us much more than it does Russia,”
the FPO MEP said, also stating that the bureaucrats in Brussels keep lying that the EU is no longer dependent on Russian energy suppliers, while Russian oil and gas continue to arrive in Europe in massive quantities, not directly, but through round-about routes, via third countries and at much higher prices.
„What you are doing here is purely pseudo-politics. I also find it extremely reprehensible that the European Union stands idly by while Ukraine, an official candidate country, threatens our energy security and causes serious energy policy and financial difficulties for the member states. Take Hungary, Slovakia and Austria, for example. Our transit contract also expires in 2025, and Ukraine refuses to extend it. Dear Commissioners, where is the European Union’s response? Where is the commitment to energy security and the economy? Where is the pressure on Ukraine, to whom we also supply billions?”
she asked the EU Commissioners taking part in the debate.
The MEP also noted that Brussels probably failed to criticise Kyiv on this issue because its behaviour negatively impacts „precisely those countries that have dared to stand up for diplomacy and peace instead of the constant escalation of war”.