Russia wants to create energy crisis in Europe: Polish PM
Poland’s prime minister on Friday warned that Russia sought to create a major energy crisis in Europe.
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki talks to the media during a European Union summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Friday, June 24, 2022. PAP/Albert Zawada
Mateusz Morawiecki’s words came as he arrived for the second day of a European Union summit in Brussels, Belgium, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
He said that the second day of the EU get-together would be „devoted to economic issues.”
According to Morawiecki, this presented an opportunity to „revisit the issue of Russia’s efforts to blackmail Europe” over energy, the PAP news agency reported.
“Russia wants to create a very serious energy crisis in Europe, especially in the autumn, in the winter, in the heating season,” he told reporters.
Morawiecki stressed that “prevention is better than cure,” adding: “We’d better explore ways to prevent this gas blackmail, this energy blackmail from Russia.”
“We’ll raise the issue of resuming the coal-fired generation of power,” he said.
‘Poland needs to increase coal mining’
Morawiecki also told reporters that “Poland needs to increase coal mining to secure ourselves for the winter, for the autumn.”
He said that Germany, Austria and the Netherlands were rolling out emergency plans to return to coal-fired energy.
He added that the talks in Brussels would also focus on „energy poverty” because „Putin and the Kremlin’s fight against Europe is playing out on this level too.”
Referring to possible further EU sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, Morawiecki said: “Today, we are talking about effective enforcement of all six packages of sanctions … and also about various new solutions that we will be focusing on in the coming weeks.”
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, consilium.europa.eu
