Five things to know about the EU's big plan to become independent from Russian fossil fuels
The European Union is facing a once-in-a-lifetime dilemma: how to cut its heavy and costly dependency on Russian energy while keeping the lights on for citizens and businesses across the continent.
The sudden reckoning has been prompted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a large-scale military operation that is partly bankrolled by the Kremlin's profitable sales of fossil fuels, of which the EU is the number one client.
Last year, the bloc spent al-most € 100 billion on Russian energy, a figure that has been haunting the 27 since the war broke out. As pressure from Kyiv and other international allies intensifies, the need to slash imports from Moscow becomes a geopolitical strategy of extreme urgency.
With this in mind, the Euro pean Commission has unveiled an ambitious and far-reaching plan, aptly coined "REPower EU", to achieve full energy independence from Russia by 2027.
The plan is "fundamentally po-litical", said a senior Commission official, and responds to the pledge that EU leaders made at the Versailles summit in March, when they vowed to "reduce our energy dependencies."
But it is also transformative: for a bloc that has for decades grown accustomed to the cheap and reliable supplies from Russia, a total halt in imports will entail enormous challenges to diversify suppliers, redesign infrastructure, mitigate price hikes, increase efficiency, boost renewable alternatives and, above all, ensure households and factories remain powered without interruption.
"Putin's war is disrupting the global energy market," said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, while presenting the plan on Wednesday afternoon.
"It shows how dependent we are on imported fossil fuels. And how vulnerable we are to relying on Russia for importing our fossil fuels."
What are Europe's energy alter-natives now that Russian gas is off the cards?
All eyes on LNG
As Russian coal has already been sanctioned and oil is in the process of being so, the big energy switch hones in on gas, the most politically sensitive fuel.
Russia is the EU's prime gas provider, accounting for 45% of total gas supplies – 155 billion cubic metres (bcm) – in 2021.
Brussels is well aware that this massive amount of gas will not disappear overnight or be replaced by green products, so the top priority is to find gas elsewhere to fill in the gap.
Liquified natural gas (LNG) emerges as the most readily available solution to this quandary. LNG is gas that has been cooled down and is transported by ships, which then unload the tanks in sophisticated terminals that turn the liquid back into gas.
This offers a great advantage for coastal states that have terminals in place, like Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, and can increase their purchases with relative ease. The EU has been breaking records of LNG imports since the start of 2022, reaching 12.4 bcm in April.
However, LNG is expensive and the global market is very competitive, with Asian buyers offering big money for the tanks. It also puts landlocked countries at a disadvantage because they don't have access to ports and are compelled to obtain their gas supplies through pipelines, most of which are Russian-operated.
REPower EU suggests that up to two thirds of Russian gas – around 100 bcm – could be slashed by the end of this year.
Half of this – 50 bcm – would be replaced by LNG diversification, while 10 bcm would come from non-Russian pipelines, including those from Norway, Azerbaijan and Algeria.
The EU is now focused on sign-ing deals and partnerships with the leading LNG producers. A recent political agreement with the US is set to provide the bloc with an extra 15 bcm of America-made LNG.
Brussels is also engaged with Qatar, Egypt, Israel and Australia to secure additional supplies and wants to explore the potential of African countries like Nigeria, Senegal and Angola.
The push to replace Russian gas with so much LNG has been criticised by environmental organisations, who say it will prolong the bloc's reliance on polluting fuels and imperil climate goals.
"The Commission is just search-ing for new fires to stick its hands in," said Silvia Pastorelli, energy campaigner at Greenpeace EU. "These plans will further line the pockets of energy giants like Saudi Aramco and Shell, who are making record profits on the back of the war, while people in Europe struggle to pay the bills."
27 buying as one
In order to break through the fierce competition for LNG, Brussels would like the 27 member states to buy as one single client and exploit their leverage as the world's largest single market.
The bloc has already set up the EU Energy Platform, a voluntary scheme to pool demand and coordinate imports that met for the first time in early April.
Brussels aims to take this a step further and create a "joint purchasing mechanism", a collective venture to negotiate gas contracts on behalf of member states.
The mechanism would be vol-untary and build upon the lessons learned from the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines, which the Commission spearheaded to obtain millions of doses at affordable prices while avoiding a race-to-thebottom.
The idea of joint purchases of gas raised to prominence last autumn, when a power crunch began sending electricity bills soaring. France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Romania had previously voiced their support for centralised procurement, arguing it would bring down prices and strengthen energy security.
"It's very important for all member states, starting with the big countries to be on board," Simone Tagliapietra, a senior fellow at Bruegel, told Euronews.
"This is not going to be good just for the small countries, namely in the East, that might have problem to procure gas in case of a Russian interruption flows. It will safeguard overall energy security in Europe."
After coal, the EU faces an up-hill battle to ban Russian oil and gas
Cutting (green) red tape
As gas is a limited, in-demand commodity, the EU needs to find other resources that can compensate for the loss of Russian fuels.
REPower EU is considered an extra layer of the European Green Deal and has a marked focus on renewable energy. The Commission proposes to speed up the deployment of wind and solar systems with the aim of replacing over 20 bcm of Russian gas before the end of the year.
But this goal faces the great wall of bureaucracy: on average, wind farms take nine years to be completed while solar panels require from four to five years to be installed. The process is highly complex and entails numerous authorisations related to construction, energy, environment and architecture standards.
In a new recommendation, Brussels asks member states to significantly speed up the process and establish binding maximum deadlines for all relevant stages. Renewable energy becomes an "overriding public interest" that justifies faster permitting.
"Speeding up permitting is a good idea," said Alex Mason, head of energy policy at the WWF EU office. "But the way to do this is to fix inefficient bureaucratic procedures, not weaken environmental legislation. Indiscriminate exemptions from nature laws for renewable energy projects could harm biodiversity and stir up public opposition – causing conflicts and further delays.”
At the same time, the Commis-sion proposes to update the EU's renewable target for 2030, from 40% to 45% of all total energy produced across the bloc, and to make solar panels mandatory in all new public and commercial buildings by 2025 and in all residential units by 2029.
The question of 'behavioural changes'
Independence from Russia energy will require more than LNG and solar panels: the great objective will also need "behavioural changes" in the way Europeans consume electricity.
Among the suggestions: use more public transport, reduce the speed on the highway, turn down the heating and air conditioning, work from home and choose households appliances that are more efficient.
"Saving energy is the cheapest, safest and cleanest way to reduce our reliance on fossil fuel imports from Russia," the Commission's document reads.
None of these suggestions are legally binding and echo previous calls made by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Brussels estimates the adop-tion of these measures will bring down electricity demand and erase the need for 13 bcm of Russian gas in the short term.
But since the proposals lack legislative weight, it's unclear how much European households and companies, who are dealing with sky-high bills and soaring inflation, would be willing to contribute on their own volition.
The Commission intends to work with the IEA, national governments and local authorities to develop information campaigns in a bid to promote energy-efficient attitudes.
Talks on an EU-wide Russian oil ban could drag on until end of May, diplomats tell Euronews
A hefty price tag
The magnitude of the transformation envisioned by REPower EU comes, as expected, with a hefty and eye-catching price tag: becoming independent from Russian energy will cost € 210 billion in additional investments between 2022 and 2027, the Commission estimates.
Over € 110 billion will go to the deployment of renewables and hydrogen systems, while € 10 billion will be used to diversify LNG and pipeline gas imports.
In an exercise of financial re-purposing, Brussels has proposed the bulk of the money should come from the unused loans of the COVID-19 recovery fund.
When EU leaders agreed to step up the novel instrument in 2020, they split the funds into € 312.5 billion for grants and € 360 billion for low-interest loans. Since loans had be progressively repaid, the majority of member states forsook them and requested only their allocated share of grants.
This has left € 225 billion in un-touched loans that can now be tapped into to finance the redesign of energy grids. Revenues obtained from the Emissions Trading System could bring an extra € 20 billion in grants.
"The combination of new grant money with unused loans can become very attractive," said a senior Commission official, noting the economic challenges posed by the war inevitably require more financing.
Notably, the Commission's cost estimation foresees € 2 billion to revamp oil infrastructure.
As part of a new package of sanctions, member states are currently discussing a ban on Russian oil, but the proposal remains stuck as Hungary, a country connected to the Russian-operated Druzhba pipeline, demands a longer phase-out and copious economic help.
Its inhabitants now claim to be routinely terrorised by repeated boar incursions, which they say is down to institutional neglect and a knee-deep garbage crisis.
A quick walk through Prati would seemingly lend credibility to such a theory, especially when one contrasts the district’s scruffy boulevards - where cherry blossoms and weeds flourish together amidst heaps of uncollected litter – to the comparatively pristine streets in the tourist-filled parts of the historic centre, such as those surrounding the Colosseum or the Spanish Steps.
I would not say that the situa-tion is out of control, the city is undoubtedly cleaner than how it was. Sabrina Alfonsi
Now that boar incursions have also become a daily sighting for the neighbourhood’s residents, it would appear that Prati – which translates as “meadows” – has started to live up to its name.
One Facebook group, Prati in azione (Prati in action), collects the frustration of more than 4,600 members who have gathered to complain about the supposedly deteriorating living situation in their district.
“Walking through Prati: almost like an open-air landfill,” reads the comment of one user, replete with photos of jam-packed dumpsters and adjacent piles of rubbish festering on the ground.
“Even in Prati, boars cross the streets on the zebra crossings,” quipped another, with a picture of a hog in the middle of an elegant avenue.
One comment is tinged with an even greater degree of desperation. “The [boar] situation is so out of control, we can’t keep living like this,” it reads.
Luca Parenti, a freelance televi-sion producer and a long-time resident of the Prati district, founded the Facebook group in 2018, which is when he started to notice a significant decline in the neighbourhood’s overall decorum.
“The boar situation is unac-ceptable and must be dealt with immediately!” he said. “Last week, my daughter’s classmate got an awful fright after bumping into one on the street.”
“You want to know why we have boars roaming Prati and scaring residents? It’s because of the smell of the trash in the street, which draws them in from the countryside.”
Parenti pins much of the blame on local institutions, directly attributing the current situation to administrative changes to the neighbourhood’s status and the role of various councillors.
“As someone who self-identi-fies as left wing, I feel deeply betrayed by administrations who have done nothing to handle the issue,” he lamented, claiming he felt the neighbourhood had been “neglected”.
“We need a serious plan for street cleaning and sweeping, which just isn’t in place,” he alleged. “While an official streetcleaning schedule does exist and can be found on the AMA [Rome’s garbage disposal company] website, it’s largely ignored. It’s only when residents file complaints that anything usually gets accomplished.”
Parenti noted how certain councillors have taken his group’s complaints to heart, and have enacted thorough clean-ups on an occasional basis.
“But a one-off cleaning here and there isn’t good enough,” he added.
“When I moved to this neigh-bourhood over ten years ago, it was a jewel,” Parenti wistfully recounted. “But now, as a result of years of failed policies, Prati has become the neglected fringe of the city centre.”
'The situation control'
In response, Rome’s environmental councillor, Sabrina Alfonsi, emphatically rebuffed such accusations.
Despite not directly addressing comments about Prati’s specific condition, she emphasised the city’s waste disposal management is under control and has been improving.
“I would not say that the situa-tion is out of control, the city is undoubtedly cleaner than how it was [at the start of the new administration] in November 2021,” Alfonsi maintained. “I will provide you with a stat: today, we are able to collect 2,000 [ more] tonnes of garbage a week compared to the start of the year.”
The councillor concurred that the city’s overall level of cleanliness was still not fully optimal, but she affirmed the current administration was intent on finding both a temporary and long-term remedy, especially as the boar epidemic poses a health and safety risk.
“Along with [AMA], we are working constantly to increase transfer capacity and to improve the service,” she asserted. “[But] it’s obviously just a provisional solution to resolve day-to-day management. The definitive solution to Rome’s waste problem will only come about when the city will be equipped with an adequate processing plant system.”
“The presence of African swine flu,” she added, “[means] we need to move rapidly. Possible options include moving street bins into private courtyards, replacing plastic containers with heavier metal ones that are harder to tip over, or having AMA trucks set up itinerant dumping sites with a pre-determined time slot.”
Rome’s mayor, moreover, has recently proposed an ambitious plan to build a colossal waste-toenergy plant, which he claims would process 650,000 tonnes of rubbish per year, and thus help to resolve the rubbish crisis.
‘Rome needs to wake up’
After years of feeling let down by local administration and being fed up with one environmental crisis after another, citizens have decided to take the matter -- or in this case, the litter -- into their own hands.
A group of exasperated resi-dents from 21 neighbourhoods across the city have coalesced this month to create a new organisation, the Association for a Liveable City (Associazione per una città vivibile).
Among their activities, they’re now planning a sit-in protest this Thursday in front of the city hall on the Capitoline Hill, titled Stop to the Urban Decay (Basta al Degrado).
“The citizens of Rome are fed up,” their pamphlet reads. “Citizens are disappointed, worried, and tired of protesting without any response.”
Among the citizen-led initia-tives in the city, some organisations -- like ‘ Retake Roma’ -- have been on the field for far longer.
Founded by American law pro-fessor and longtime Rome resident, Rebecca Spitzmiller, following a graffiti complaint in her neighbourhood, the group has aimed to provide a citizen-led response to Rome’s garbage emergencies.
In its twelve years of existence, Retake has attracted a significant following, which includes locals and foreigners – especially international students – alike. Having amassed nearly 70,000 likes on Facebook, Retake has also spread beyond the Italian capital to several other cities throughout the country, and even boasts its own app.
While most of Retake Roma’s activities centre on litter collection and graffiti removal - often collaborating with the AMA disposal company itself - it self-reportedly takes a holistic approach to the matter, engaging in various community-building activities and even civic events, such as commemorative ceremonies honouring Italy’s liberation from fascism. The association’s body largely consists of volunteers, most of whom operate within their own urban district.
“You can really tell the differ-ence between neighbourhoods which have a strong Retake presence, and those which do not,” claimed Angela Gallo, one of the group’s members.
Yet citizens like Parenti remain sceptical that groups like Retake Roma – however well-intentioned – can single-handedly handle the crisis and affect any enduring change.
“In theory, [Retake] are useful in raising awareness,” he argued. “But what we need are projects and continuous, day-to-day work.”
For Retake founder Spitzmiller, however, Rome’s age-old garbage woes transcend alleged administrative failings but are also rooted within a wider cultural problem. She reckons that Roman citizens aren’t doing enough to tackle the crisis themselves - and she attributes this to a lack of a recycling mentality, a broken relationship between citizens and their institutions, and a reluctance to take personal responsibility for poor waste disposal habits.
“Rome needs its citizens and administration to wake up,” Spitzmiller urged. “We cannot keep making excuses and saying ‘it’s not my fault, it’s not my problem’. People need to speak up, grow up, and clean up.”