According to Fico, radical measures are needed to address the issue of high energy prices, which threaten the competitiveness of the European Union. The prime minister wrote this in an open letter to Ursula von der Leyen, which he announced on Monday evening. He will also bring it to the attention of all prime ministers and presidents of EU member states.
Negotiations with Trump
He did so a few days after returning from the US, where he met with President Donald Trump. However, the details of their discussion are not yet known. Fico only confirmed that they discussed several international events. Specifically, he mentioned the war in Ukraine, and they also assessed the European Union together.
"The US president clearly promotes the national interests of the US. If the EU acted in this way, we would be in a completely different place than we are now. World leaders do not take the EU entirely seriously, and we can attribute this to our nonsensical climate goals and suicidal migration policy," he explained on Monday.
In a letter to the Commission President, which he published on social media, he noted that "the era of gross violations of international law and the collapse of the world order in which we find ourselves is a severe test of the strength and capabilities of the European Union."
"Unfortunately, we are not doing well in this test, and the key global players do not feel, subjectively or objectively, the need to take our positions seriously," he stressed.
The influence of the EU
According to him, one of the factors influencing the European Union's ability to exert adequate influence is competitiveness, which is alarming. He mentioned that at several European Council meetings, the European Commission was asked to submit specific proposals to reduce electricity prices for strategic sectors of European industry.
He stated that he had not seen any specific program and was convinced that a radical approach was needed on this issue.
"One option I propose for the Slovak Republic is to declare a four- to five-year moratorium on the application of the emissions trading mechanism. Such a decision would lead to a significant revival and boost to strategic industrial sectors," the prime minister wrote.
He expects that other alternatives for reducing extremely high electricity prices will also emerge.
"The future of the European Union depends greatly on whether we dogmatically insist on sufficiently ill-conceived ambitious climate goals that destroy strategic European industry, or whether we have the strength and courage to make meaningful reductions," he emphasized.
He pointed to the negative example of Slovalco, which had to cease primary aluminum production in Slovakia in 2023 due to "absurdly high electricity prices." According to the prime minister, this was one of the most modern and environmentally friendly companies in this field, producing ten percent of the total primary aluminum production in the EU.
"The situation in strategic industrial sectors is more critical in individual member states than it may appear in Brussels. The European Union is spending more than €380 billion to support Ukraine in its conflict with the Russian Federation, which has no military solution, and the conflict is literally dominating the agenda of the European Council and the European Commission. It is natural that the citizens of EU member states expect that the future of the EU, which is vulnerable without a strong economy, deserves the same attention and resources," concluded Fico.
(tasr, max)