"Urgently reduce energy prices" - Austrian Chancellor's appeal to the European Commission
"EU leaders must urgently focus on reducing energy prices that are weakening industry," Austria's chancellor said ahead of an informal summit in Belgium.
"The most urgent task is to reduce energy prices," said Christian Stocker. According to him, no other factor is weakening European industry so much and no other issue affects so many member states simultaneously.
Stocker's message comes ahead of an EU summit on Thursday, where leaders will gather to agree on a common agenda to boost economic growth and make the bloc more independent.
His appeal comes amid a flurry of comments from EU leaders seeking to shape the meeting's agenda, with French President Emmanuel Macron supporting joint debt and a preferential European policy.
The Austrian chancellor's comments echo those of other leaders, including Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who have called on the EU to scrap environmental rules they blame for high energy prices.
"The approach we followed with the Green Deal was certainly not sustainable. In Austria, for example, the reduction in CO2 emissions is mainly due to a decline in production," Stocker added, referring to a major package of environmental regulations adopted during the previous Commission term. "Becoming greener cannot be our goal. And that means becoming poorer," he added.
The EU has already begun rolling back some environmental regulations, as part of a deregulation initiative supported by most of the bloc's member states. In joint discussion papers, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have called for the initiative to be accelerated and for an "emergency brake" on new EU legislation.
"As a next step, I will support the extension of free emissions permits [under the EU Emissions Trading System] for our industry. This will ensure that domestic industry remains competitive and that our companies are not displaced," the Austrian Chancellor concluded.
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