Ebrahim Bagheri, in an interview with the website of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, referred to the remarks of Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, at the annual meeting of the European Parliament, stating: According to her, after the Second World War and establishment of the European Union, it was unprecedented that a meeting be held in the parliament, while the Union be engaged in an external war. In addition, the discussions related to European energy and plans to reduce dependence on gas made this annual report different from previous periods.<\/p>\n
He pointed to the matching of the color of the clothes of the President of the European Commission at that meeting with the color of the flag of Ukraine and the European Union and added: In fact, the main problem of Europe is the war in Ukraine and the future of the European Union, and her speech began with issues related to the war.<\/p>\n
The analyst of Europe affairs stated that in that meeting a report was presented on the sanctions plans of the European Union against Moscow, especially in financial issues and all the imposed sanctions and the restrictions that were implemented against Russian companies and the reduction of production of Russian technology and equipment, and said: Based on the remarks of von der Leyen, about one thousand Russian international companies have been sanctioned by Europe, and the amount of production of engines and some equipment in Russia decreased by more than 75 percent last year.<\/p>\n
At that meeting, Bagheri referred to the presentation of a package of 100 million euro by the European Union to Ukraine and continued: The president of the European Commission emphasized the issue of the energy crisis, and considering the significant reduction of gas exports to European countries by Russia, the Union has activated its own gas diplomacy and has held negotiations with countries such as the Republic of Azerbaijan which, besides Russia, is the only country with gas pipeline to Europe.<\/p>\n
Saying that Europe is going to supply a large part of Russia\u2019s export gas deficit from the United States, Northern European countries, as well as the Republic of Azerbaijan, to Europe through the South Caucasus Corridor and the TANAP and TAP pipelines, he noted: With the agreements reached between President of the European Commission and President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, by the end of 2022, three billion cubic meters of export gas will be added to Europe. Some North African countries, Turkmenistan, Iran and Qatar also play a special role in the European gas interaction strategy.<\/p>\n
Ukraine crisis, emergence of European energy crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n Saying that the energy crisis was very prominent in the annual meeting of the European Parliament, he added: The president of the European Commission referred to the discussion of the Union\u2019s strategy to compensate for the European gas shortage in winter. This strategy is designed under the title of \u201cEuropean Union\u2019s External Energy Engagement\u201d strategy to restore Europe\u2019s power in the field of energy and gas dependence of the European Union, which pursues four targets.<\/p>\n Bagheri named \u201cdiversification of Europe\u2019s gas resources\u201d as one of those goals and said: It is expected that about 70 percent of the 85 percent of the targeted gas has been stored. The second target is \u201cpreparing the European Union for renewable energy\u201d through large investments, and the third target is \u201creducing dependence on Russian energy imports\u201d by investing in European energy companies, and the fourth target is \u201csaving energy consumption\u201d in which Europe has been able to reach 13 percent from 9 percent.<\/p>\n The expert on Europe affairs added: In that meeting, the president of the European Commission discussed the strategy for \u201cquota during the crisis\u201d, in which the companies that have achieved huge profits through price increases, should distribute it throughout the Union and for the people who are in serious need. In addition, those companies should reduce demand by increasing gas supply so that prices do not increase further, and issues were also raised regarding electricity production.<\/p>\n Bagheri, referring to the remarks of the president of the European Commission who said they should have paid more attention to the concerns of the Eastern and Central countries about Russia\u2019s expansionism, emphasized: Von der Leyen pointed to the failure of the European fossil fuel elimination program and acknowledged that Europe did not care about the Green Party\u2019s plan to reduce fossil fuels, and this issue has now seriously affected the EU\u2019s strategic independence.<\/p>\n He considered the development plans in the Union in the areas of military independence, coherence in foreign policy, financial and economic laws and planning regarding energy issues as being among the most important things that were taken into consideration in the words of the president of the European Commission and said: In that meeting, it was stated that the Union has plans to strengthen the power of European military action in coordination with NATO, and at the same time, Europe should also have the ability to intervene militarily without the help of the United States. It was also announced that Europe is preparing a joint statement with NATO, which will be presented before the end of the current year.<\/p>\n Stating that Europe is trying to hold a meeting in the first half of 2023 in which the theoretical and financial issues of the independent defense policy of the European Union will be discussed, the analyst of Europe affairs said: In that meeting, the president of the European Commission stressed the need to pay attention to guaranteeing stability in the region, diversifying threats including cyber threats, hybrid wars and the importance of the political will of the member states to participate in urgent situations, as well as climate change and successes in the fight against Coronavirus and management of migration crisis.<\/p>\n Europe in deepest recession<\/strong><\/p>\n Bagheri referred to the announcement of European financial aid to Afghanistan to prevent humanitarian disaster in that meeting and said: According to the announcement of the president of the European Commission, Europe is in the deepest economic recession since the World War II and yet the economic recovery package has been able to make changes in improving the condition of the citizens, while Europe has suffered a loss of 700 billion dollars due to that recession.<\/p>\n The expert on Europe affairs considered the emphasis on pragmatism and plans that can be realized as a feature of the recent annual meeting of the European Parliament and said: In previous years, Europe\u2019s ambitious long-term plans were discussed in that meeting, but in the recent meeting, pragmatic, non-ideological and operational plans for the medium and short term were reviewed.<\/p>\n He pointed to the emphasis of the president of the European Commission that Russia will lose the war in Ukraine and added: The European Union always considers itself as a normative power and considers the protection of Western values \u200b\u200bas its goal, in addition to that, arrangements have been made with countries for gas supply and provision of a large part of targeted energy and positive prospects for reducing dependence on Russia in the field of energy have made European countries speak from a position of power towards Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Strategic Council Online – Interview: An expert on Europe affairs, saying that the energy crisis was very prominent in the annual meeting of the European Parliament, added: Providing a large part of the targeted energy has caused European countries to speak from a position of power with regard to Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":146360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6079,12607,5893],"tags":[624,878,31110,3061,743,1415,23030,13858,495,18915,36410,653],"class_list":["post-146406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-6079","category-12607","category-5893","tag-624","tag-878","tag-31110","tag-3061","tag-743","tag-1415","tag-23030","tag-13858","tag-495","tag-18915","tag-36410","tag-653"],"yoast_head":"\n