IEA Chief Fatih Birol - Decoupling from Russian energy puts European Industry under heavy pressure

9 Mar 23 The International Energy Agency's (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol warned that the European Union energy will be more expensive in the future. Part of a meeting of the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) in Brussels on Thursday.

"Europe industry is based on a model which is basically getting abundant and cheap Russian energy. This is finished, there is no going back. Europe in energy in the future will be more expensive than in the past," said Birol, adding.

"This will put a lot of pressure on the competitiveness of the European industries as energy is a big part of the production cost of steel, aluminium, cars, chemicals, whatever you produce. If your energy input is much more expensive than your competitiveness, you start from a rather disadvantageous position", he added.

EU has been reportedly trying to reduce its dependency on Russian gas, oil and other energy supplies since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, in 2022.

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