We have the necessary courage with the necessary solidarity and Russian President Vladimir Putin will fail and Ukraine and Europe will win. This was said by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, during her State of the Union Address.
“Sanctions will remain. Right now, we have to continue this way, not settle. We have to make it very clear. The same applies to financial support to Ukraine. Rebuilding the country will cost huge resources,” she said.
According to her, Europeans are facing a test from those who want to see them divided. “This is not just a war that the Russians started against Ukraine. This is a war for our energy, for our economy and values. This is a war for our future. It’s about autocracy versus democracy,” Von der Leyen is emphatic.
The chairman of the European Commission is of the opinion that today courage has a name – “Ukraine”. “Courage has a face, and it is the face of Ukrainian men and women who faced Russian aggression,” she stressed.
Von der Leyen pointed out that since the beginning of the war, Europe has been with Ukraine with weapons, with funding, with the acceptance of refugees and with the “heaviest sanctions” the world has ever seen.
“The financial sector of Russia is on command breathing. The Russian military is taking chips out of dishwashers and refrigerators to repair their military machines because they have no semiconductors. Russian industry is in ruins,” she added.
And he added: “It is the Kremlin that did this to the Russian economy. This is the price for Putin’s policy of destruction,” Von der Leyen is emphatic.
The chairman of the EC reported that so far Europe has given Ukraine more than 90 billion euros in financial aid, without taking military aid into account. “Russia’s attacks have damaged or destroyed over 70 schools. We will spend over 100 million euros to build schools,” she announced.
She also announced that Ukraine will be included in the roaming system of the European Union free of charge. “The Commission will work together with Ukraine to ensure seamless access to the EU single market. Today, I will discuss all this with Zelensky”, said the chairman of the EC.
The European economy and the energy crisis
Von der Leyen noted the unprecedented pandemic, but also the rapid recovery of the European economy. “We did everything possible to overcome the risk of unemployment. We were in the worst recession, but we managed to achieve the fastest economic recovery in history. All this thanks to the Recovery Plan”, she noted.
“The energy market, as it appears today, is no longer in the service of consumers,” she summed up. “We need to separate the pricing and the relationship between gas and electricity, a profound change in the electricity market is ahead,” added the chairman of the commission.
According to her, it is necessary to reduce the consumption of electricity in the EU during the busiest hours. “We are proposing measures for countries to reduce their overall electricity consumption, targeted support for consumers is needed,” she added.
Von der Leyen explained that a cap on profits for electricity producers is proposed, with excess profits that they did not even expect to be redistributed to targeted support for consumers. According to her, the states can be expected to have an additional 140 billion euros available from this measure.
“In our economy, profits are a good thing, but today it is not good for those profits to give rise to war profiteering at the expense of consumers. Today, the profits must be shared with those who need it the most”, said the President of the EC. She clarified that these are initial and temporary measures, continuing the discussion of the possibility of setting a ceiling on gas prices.
Von der Leyen urged the EU to focus on reliable gas suppliers such as the US, Norway and Algeria. According to her, the Union does not need temporary, but permanent solutions, as Denmark has set an example with the deployment of wind energy production.
“Energy prices have jumped tenfold compared to the time before the pandemic. Millions of companies and families in the EU are worried about how to cover their monthly bills. Hydrogen can change the picture significantly if we move to mass production. We want to produce 10 million tons of green hydrogen by 2030, the President of the EC pointed out. Von der Leyen announced that the EU will set up a European hydrogen bank that will be able to invest three billion euros in the future hydrogen market.
Words for Queen Elizabeth II
In her speech, von der Leyen also mentioned Queen Elizabeth II, who died last week. He defined the late monarch as: “She is a legend.” And he added: “Her death reminded us of transience. She was a stoic, constant and unchanging in her role. A man who always found the right words.”
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