“We have to reduce all our dependencies, especially on Russian gas,” he said French Deputy Foreign MinisterEuropean Affairs Officer Clement Bonn in an interview with FRANCE INTER radio station.
The French Deputy Minister called for the plan to reduce consumption to be followed Russian gas by two thirds proposed by the European Commission. “We need to reduce all our dependencies as soon as possible,” he said.
“We have to be as innovative as we did for Covid. “We have to be able to go much further in a few weeks.”
“THE Russia it is based on the fact that we are addicted, that we need its energy, its gas and that is what is happening today. About 40% of the gas we import to Europe comes from Russia. “Let us reduce it as soon as possible,” the French deputy minister underlined.
THE European Commission proposed a plan to reduce Russian gas consumption by two-thirds by the end of 2022 “which would allow consumption to be stopped by 2030 at the latest. I think we must follow that plan,” Bonn said. :
“We will discuss it with the Germans, the Italians. In France, we have made energy choices that have secured sovereignty. It is not total as it is less than 20% of the natural gas coming from Russia. For Germany and Italy it is much more complicated. “For Romania and Austria, 100% of the gas comes from Russia,” he explained. “So we have to make these decisions at the level of 27. It’s on the table to have a European strategy to stop consuming Russian gas anymore. “This is not guaranteed at the moment,” he said.
On the issue of defense co-operation in the EU, Bonn said. “We need to reinvest in defense at European level, speed up our energy transition and stop using Russian gas. “All of this will require money.” That is why, he concluded, “we have to look at all the options, including a new European investment plan, the common European aid. “We are in such an extraordinary, extraordinary and dramatic situation that we can not afford to stay in the somewhat classic, sometimes bureaucratic European routine.”
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