Macron: Europe's Competitiveness Suffered After Abandoning Russian Gas

MADRID, September 30. /TASS/. Russian gas was one of the fundamental elements of European industry’s competitiveness and Europe itself gave it up, French President Emmanuel Macron said at an economic forum in Madrid.

"We have a problem with competitiveness and innovation. Europe's competitiveness largely relied <...> on inexpensive Russian gas, which triggered a crisis across the entire continent. We severed these supplies, which were key to the competitiveness of our industry, due to [the Ukrainian conflict]. Therefore, there is no more this affordable gas that, so to say, fed Central Europe, which was also the manufacturing core and pulled the rest of our economic sectors along with it," he said.

Europe is currently experiencing a new turn of the energy crisis caused by the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, which has confirmed the European countries' dependence on fossil fuels. He urged in this connection to work toward creating an integrated energy market in Europe and backed fair sharing of the financial burden in major energy projects across the continent. "Let’s stop tormenting ourselves with impossible rules, trying to figure out whether this was produced using nuclear energy, renewable sources, or one thing or another. If it is low-carbon energy produced with us, it is better than if it contains a lot of carbon, and even better than if we import it," Macron added.