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Germany pushes Europe towards pact with Russia: report

05.01.2022 23:15
The government in Berlin has criticised the European Commission’s plan to label some nuclear power as green, suggesting that member states switch to gas instead, a Polish website reported on Wednesday, citing Germany's “Die Welt” newspaper.
Germany has criticised the European Commissions plan to label some nuclear power as green, suggesting that member states switch to gas instead, Germanys Die Welt newspaper reported on Wednesday, according to a Polish website.
Germany has criticised the European Commission’s plan to label some nuclear power as green, suggesting that member states switch to gas instead, Germany's “Die Welt” newspaper reported on Wednesday, according to a Polish website. Photo: Pixabay

The energetyka24.com website said Die Welt warned such a stance could promote dependence on Russian supplies.

Germany’s Economy and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck on Saturday voiced outrage at Brussels’ plans to “greenwash” nuclear power, Die Welt reported, according to energetyka24.com.

The German government spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, was quoted as saying on Monday that Berlin “clearly rejects” the European Commission’s assessment of nuclear power, but welcomed plans to label gas, under certain conditions, as a sustainable energy source.

The decision to classify some gas power as green “seems far more problematic” in terms of “both climate policy and geopolitics” than the similarly favourable treatment of some nuclear power, which Berlin criticises, Die Welt said in an article, according to energetyka24.com.

The German paper cited an environmental expert, Ralf Fücks, as saying that these two options for energy transition, favoured by Germany and France respectively, must be combined “if a climate compromise at European level is to be reached,” energetyka24.com reported.

'Champagne corks popping' in Russia

Fücks was also quoted as saying that “champagne corks must have been popping at the headquarters of the Russian energy giant Gazprom” after Berlin shut down three more nuclear plants on New Year’s Eve.

"This makes Germany even more reliant on Russian energy deliveries," Fücks told Die Welt, according to energetyka24.com.

Die Welt commented that “it is becoming increasingly obvious that by phasing out nuclear, Germany is forcing itself to strike a pact with Russia, which harms the geopolitical interests of Europe, and especially its eastern partners,” the Polish website reported.

“No energy project illustrates this better than the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which came under fierce criticism from both the European Commission and the United States,” the German paper said, as cited by energetyka24.com. 

If other EU states followed Germany’s example in making a medium-term switch to gas, “the whole of Europe, not just Germany, would become dangerously dependent on Russian energy supplies,” energetyka24.com said Die Welt wrote.  

“We urgently need a common European foreign and energy policy, which will reduce reliance on Russian natural gas,” Fücks was quoted as saying.

However, “the European Commission's decision on the classification of gas power is a step in precisely the opposite direction,” Die Welt said, according to energetyka24.com.

(pm/gs)

Source: energetyka24.comwelt.de