The EU Commission chief said on Thursday that the threat of tariffs risks further disruption to crucial supply chains, stressing that reliable and affordable energy is the “lifeblood of our economies.”
“We are facing a new paradigm for energy security in Europe,” Ursula von der Leyen said at the International Summit on the Future of Energy Security in London, citing Russia’s war in Ukraine and Houthi attacks in the Middle East.
She also touched on US President Donald Trump’s tariff policy, saying: “Across the Atlantic, the threat of tariffs risks further disruption of crucial supply chains.”
The EU Commission president stressed that reliable and affordable energy is the lifeblood of economies.”
“It underpins our national security, and it sustains our industrial and economic competitiveness,” she said, adding that the bloc’s Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen will present a road map with concrete measures “to phase out all imports of Russian fossil fuels.”
Turning to “already visible progress” on shifting to renewable energy, von der Leyen recalled that renewables now account for 47% of the EU’s electricity mix.
She emphasized that solar and wind are the two fastest-growing energy sources and that the EU installed 78 gigawatts of new renewable capacity in 2024 alone.
Reiterating the challenges around energy security, von der Leyen said global challenges require a collective response.
“We need greater collaboration across the entire energy value chain,” she added.