Timmermans: EU must pursue more sustainable energy with Green Deal

European Commissioner Frans Timmermans is absolutely opposed to postponing or slowing down European climate policy or the Green Deal of the new agricultural policy due to the war in Ukraine. On the contrary: to break free from dependence on Russian gas as quickly as possible, EU countries must switch to more new sustainable energy as soon as possible.

“Our world has changed. Europe will never be the same again. So we must also look differently at our own efforts. That also means we must re-examine our plans in a new light,” Timmermans said Monday evening in the ENVI environment committee of the European Parliament. With this, he referred to suggestions that the EU will still need coal for some time, or nuclear energy.

Regarding proposals to postpone or reverse the Green Deal because of the Russian war, Timmermans drew a comparison with the outbreak (two years ago) of the Covid pandemic. “That pandemic was also used then to just put the CAP issue on hold.

The ‘carbon ideologists’ grasp at every worn-out argument to repeat their outdated pleas. We must switch faster to wind and solar energy and biogas. We must get rid of Russian artificial fertilizer faster.”

Timmermans called the Green Deal and from-farm-to-fork policy not part of the (food) problem but part of the solution. He announced that the European Commission will come forward Tuesday (March 8) with a European proposal for more affordable, safer, and more sustainable energy. With such an action plan, the EU aims to secure its own energy supply in Europe now that our gas supply is on shaky ground due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Timmermans was broadly supported by most factions in his plea to uphold the Green Deal. But both the Christian Democratic EPP and the conservative ECR advocated transitional arrangements and possibilities for exceptions.

The EU energy plan aims to accelerate the use of renewable energy. On this, PvdA MEP Mohammed Chahim said: “For some time now, I have advocated stopping gas from Russia and securing our own energy supply. The need to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian gas as quickly as possible has become painfully clear because of this war.”

The European Commission will come forward Tuesday with proposals to diversify supplies from Russian pipeline gas to liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other gas suppliers, such as Qatar and the United States. To prevent insufficient gas storage in the future, the Commission wants average storage in the EU to be at least 80% for this winter.

Furthermore, it proposes a new “energy pact” to stimulate the use of renewable energy, especially via hydrogen and biogas. By 2030, we are expected to produce 35 billion cubic meters of biogas and import 10 million tons of green hydrogen.