European Council President Antonio Costa called Wednesday for the European Union to invest more deeply in renewables or nuclear power, saying this is the bloc\u2019s strongest bet to avoid energy shocks in a less predictable world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only structural solution for Europe is to develop [its] home-grown sources to produce energy,\u201d Costa told an annual forum in Delphi. \u201cRenewables, nuclear, [it] doesn\u2019t matter. We \u2026 should \u2013 we must \u2013 produce our own energy. If not, we are always exposed to risks of disruption.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a matter of our own security and that must be one of the main priorities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Costa also said the EU must invest deeper in energy grids, adopting smarter versions, and seek more efficient ways of using energy.<\/p>\n
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who participated in a panel discussion with Costa, said that while Greece has no such capacity yet nuclear power production must be a key element of Europe\u2019s energy mix.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to double down on those industries where we can actually create homegrown strategic autonomy,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we need to do it in nuclear \u2026 We need to be ruthlessly pragmatic. And we need to understand that nuclear will be part of the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also urged an EU \u201cplan B\u201d should the crisis in the Persian Gulf persist, arguing that no country would be in a position to single-handedly deal with a potential steep rise in energy prices, a scarcity of fertilizers and a rise in inflation.<\/p>\n
Costa stressed the need for international law to be respected, saying that the alternative is chaos. He added that Iran can \u201cnever, ever\u201d acquire a nuclear weapon, its ballistic missile programme must be controlled and the freedom of navigation must be respected in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
The EU leader also took great pains to avoid overt criticism of the US, saying it\u2019s still Europe\u2019s priority to maintain \u201cgood relations\u201d with Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes we don\u2019t agree,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have now clearly the same vision about [the] importance [of preserving] a multilateral system. We don\u2019t have now the same vision about the importance [of upholding] international law.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have our own style,\u201d Costa added. \u201cWe respect the style of the United States. But our main goal is to de-escalate, to avoid tensions, to [not] react to each tweet with the other tweet. And we keep calm and we will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European Council President Antonio Costa called Wednesday for the European Union to invest more deeply in renewables or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[428,24904,1579,467,4670,3439,1283,51],"class_list":{"0":"post-38345","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-antonio-costa","8":"tag-antonio-costa","9":"tag-delphi-economic-forum","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-energy","12":"tag-foreign-affairs","13":"tag-kyriakos-mitsotakis","14":"tag-nuclear-energy","15":"tag-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116449915880520952","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}