EXCLUSIVE: EU Energy Program Being Used to Push Brussels ‘Green Deal’ Climate Agenda – MEPs

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - JULY 20: President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (L)
Thierry Monasse/Getty Images
Peter Caddle

Populist representatives within the European Parliament have criticised the EU’s plan to ease its addiction to Russian energy as being used to serve its “Green Deal” climate agenda instead.

Joachim Kuhs and Dr. Gunnar Beck, both members of the populist Alternative für Deutschland party, have criticised the European Union for prioritising its own green agenda over the needs of the bloc’s citizens during the ongoing energy crisis.

Titled REPowerEU, the scheme purportedly aims to ween the union off of its addiction to Russian energy exports, with nations like Italy and Germany having been left overly reliant on the foreign power, in part due to their obsession with climate change.

However, with the European Commission now openly calling the plan a way to “fast forward the green transition”, both populist MEPs have said that the plan is no longer fit for its original purpose, putting the green ideology held by those in Brussels ahead of the needs of its population for reliable energy.

“A climate project is now being fabricated from an emergency support package for the countries most dependent on Russian gas,” Dr. Beck said.

“REPowerEU will become an instrument of the Green Deal as investments in nuclear energy, oil and certain types of gas will not be promoted. But that would be necessary to close the energy supply gap after the Russian gas failure,” he continued, before arguing that the plan would not “promote the energy independence of the EU but increases energy dependency between Member States”.

Dr. Beck went on to tell Breitbart Europe that the explicit exclusion of oil from the scope of the deal almost completely undermines its effectiveness, while also criticising the levels of bureaucracy in the bill that will make it far more difficult for EU members to decouple from Russian energy.

“Oil is explicitly removed from the scope,” he told this publication. “Yet, investment in oil drilling in eg the North Sea is a vital component of EU energy independence.”

“In short, the Parliament is rebranding RepowerEU into an annex of the EU Green Deal, instead of helping countries accelerate their decoupling of Russian Gas,” he went on to say.

Meanwhile, Kuhs told Breitbart Europe that the project would see billions in taxes spent on pushing Brussels’ “Green Deal” pet project in a way that would see little material benefit to European citizens.

“The [project] was intended to facilitate a higher grade of energy independence for the EU. However, Brussels diverts the money to try to save its failed green energy transition,” the MEP told Breitbart, arguing that funding for various aspects of REPowerEU should go towards investing in the “low hanging fruits” of energy policy.

“We should support the prolongation of German nuclear power plants and resolve the shortage of energy from coal,” he continued. “Financing hydraulic fracturing [also know as fracking] in the EU would be cheaper than importing LNG and would help make us independent from the volatile world markets.”

“Instead, the Parliament doubles down on its expensive pet projects that will not ease the burden for citizens who are hammered by this winter’s energy bills,” he went on to say.

Kuhs went on to take particular issue with an over three billion dollar scheme to set up a “European Hydrogen Bank”, saying that the project is not at all an efficient use of taxpayer funds gathered from a struggling EU public.

Championed by the bloc’s Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the project has previously been lambasted as being “apparent insanity” by the head of one environmental org.

“[V]on der Leyen has in her State of the Union speech come up with the ridiculous idea of creating a Hydrogen bank as part of RePower EU,” Kuhs remarked.

“Now even EU officials admit this would be uncompetitive, but they hang on to crazy ideas like this anyway,” he continued. “3 billion Euro will be wasted on this project, while citizens do not know how to pay their bills.”

Follow Peter Caddle on Twitter: @Peter_Caddle
Follow Breitbart London on Facebook: Breitbart London

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.