EnergyMin Burduja: Green shock therapy must stop

Europe's "greening" policies were not well-thought-out public policies, but an ideology followed blindly, on the model of shock therapy, and this must stop and the economy must be rebuilt on solid, competitive and innovative foundations, argues Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja."In recent days, something that I have suspected for a long time has been confirmed: Europe's 'greening' policies were not well-thought-out public policies, but an ideology followed blindly, on the model of shock therapy. And, like any ideology imposed without careful planning, it has turned into a utopia that is costing us dearly - economically, socially and strategically. It is scandalous to learn that Europeans' money - ours, everyone's - has been used to finance NGOs and lobbying campaigns for the greening of the EU. An absurd paradox: with our money, we have destroyed our industries and have also promoted how much 'good' we do. While heavy industry, the extractive industry and other vital sectors of the European economy were collapsing, and countless Romanians, French, Germans, Poles and Hungarians were losing their jobs, the EU was indirectly financing hostile states and distant markets, deepening the trade deficit and supporting third economies," the minister wrote on his Facebook account on Monday evening.According to him, the European Union, "which was born as a community of coal and steel - symbols of economic power and competitiveness," ended up promoting and financing imports of photovoltaic panels, inverters, batteries and wind turbines produced thousands of kilometers away, while its own gas, its own industry, its own resources were declared "polluting.""Russian gas was instead used, for example, to produce chemical fertilizers in other states, fertilizers that were then imported into the EU," he stressed."This green shock therapy must stop. Those who used taxpayers' money to lobby for it, destroying Europe's industry, must give explanations. Instead, we urgently need to rebuild Europe's economy on solid, competitive and innovative foundations. The European project must become a global force again - as the founding fathers dreamed of 74 years ago. They built a community of coal and steel, not an ideological experiment that brings us to our knees in competition with some authoritarian states. Europe has the resources, technology and people needed to return to the big league of the world. It is time to give up utopias and focus on reality. Let's rebuild industry, invest in clean energy, but without compromising secure and accessible/competitive energy. Romania assumes the energy transition - from coal to gas, from gas to nuclear energy. It is a concrete plan and pragmatic, and after 17 years we managed last year to adopt a new national energy strategy, based on this approach. Let us become strong, united and independent again. Europe has gone through harder times. Together, we can turn this crisis into a new beginning. (...) The EU pollutes with less than 5% of the total CO2 emissions on the globe (situation of 2023). The European Union needs a reset and more and more European decision-makers support this. We are ready to support this paradigm shift", concluded the minister of energy.  (Photo:https://www.facebook.com/)