{"id":461912,"date":"2026-03-07T03:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/461912\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T03:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:59:15","slug":"von-der-leyen-doubles-down-in-face-of-energy-crisis-criticism-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/461912\/","title":{"rendered":"Von der Leyen doubles down in face of energy crisis criticism \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere is criticism and concerns coming from member states, but at the leaders\u2019 retreat [last month in the Belgian countryside] they asked the Commission to come up with solutions on energy,\u201d said one EU official with knowledge of the talks, granted anonymity to speak frankly, as were others quoted in this piece.<\/p>\n

Described as an orientation debate, the meeting was a chance for commissioners to \u201cexchange ideas on these topics and propose concrete actions,” said the EU official, “particularly in this case, as the president is expected by the member states to present on energy prices at the next EUCO [European Council]. They\u2019re important to member states so it\u2019s important to the Commission.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to an internal note drafted by EU competition chief Teresa Ribera, a Spanish socialist, and Energy Commissioner Dan J\u00f8rgensen, a Danish social democrat, \u201cthe recent escalation in the Middle East and the disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz have had an immediate effect on global energy prices and market volatility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Oil and gas prices have jumped sharply in the wake of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. | Oscar Del Pozo\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

And yet, the Commission\u2019s strategy remains unchanged despite strikes on Iran sparking supply concerns. The internal note, obtained by POLITICO<\/a>, focuses on long-standing calls to boost green energy, but also acknowledges that may not be enough and hints at a \u201cbridge solution\u201d to slash bills until the benefits from the clean transition are felt.<\/p>\n

A second Commission official confirmed that the meeting was called to focus on improving \u201corganization in the wake of the high energy prices due to the conflict in the Middle East,\u201d but that the response would focus on trying to get national governments to take advantage of powers already available under existing EU rules to slash bills. <\/p>\n

A third official, who has worked directly on the proposals, said the Commission is confident it has \u201ctaken concrete actions\u201d in the wake of Russia weaponizing energy supplies, and that it is in a good place to deal with current developments. \u201cWe have enhanced security of supply by diversifying our partners and reducing overdependencies on unreliable suppliers like Russia,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThere is criticism and concerns coming from member states, but at the leaders\u2019 retreat [last month in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[163219,3485,84,6230,5704,459,59084,461,1344,3682,158660,2982,59,2923,585,467,632,2363,2987,78088,154,1351,39474,56,157,54,158,55,2988,86732,636,161],"class_list":{"0":"post-461912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-andrej-babis","9":"tag-bridges","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-competitiveness","12":"tag-conflict","13":"tag-crisis","14":"tag-dan-jorgensen","15":"tag-elections","16":"tag-energy","17":"tag-energy-prices","18":"tag-fatih-birol","19":"tag-fossil-fuels","20":"tag-gb","21":"tag-growth","22":"tag-iran","23":"tag-markets","24":"tag-middle-east","25":"tag-negotiations","26":"tag-oil","27":"tag-pipelines","28":"tag-russia","29":"tag-security","30":"tag-teresa-ribera","31":"tag-uk","32":"tag-ukraine","33":"tag-united-kingdom","34":"tag-united-states","35":"tag-unitedkingdom","36":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","37":"tag-viktor-orban","38":"tag-war","39":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}