Over the past four years, we have realized how vulnerable and overly dependent we are, and this is painful to acknowledge. This was stated by President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen during the plenary session of the 8th summit of the European Political Community on May 4 in Yerevan.

She explained that the first excessive dependence is linked to imports of fossil fuels. Von der Leyen added that energy has always been a stumbling block in the internal market of the European Union, but now, with the conflict in the Middle East, it has become a weak point and a deadlock has emerged. In her assessment, it is precisely the excessive dependence on global energy prices that is painfully harming the EU’s competitiveness. “However, we have our own assets — renewable energy sources: from wind and solar to hydropower and nuclear energy. And we need to significantly strengthen our energy independence, making it more reliable through our own, cheaper and more predictable energy sources,” the President of the European Commission noted.

The second dependence, according to her, is related to security. She emphasized that the history of the past four years has pointed to the need to learn how to stand up for our rights. “That is why we have mobilized up to 800 billion euros by 2030 to fill the gaps in the field of security. It is extremely important that we become more independent on this issue and are able to create a reliable deterrence mechanism. And this is the task for which we have all gathered here — to ensure much more reliable, stronger security, together with Ukraine, stronger and more reliable security,” von der Leyen noted.

She added that European independence does not mean isolation. “On the contrary. It means building ties with like-minded partners, because we need stable, reliable supply chains. In this regard, in recent years we have significantly expanded our network of free trade agreements with Latin America, with India, and with Australia. Soon we will also sign an agreement with Mexico. We have the largest network of free trade agreements in the world, and we must use it to ensure independence and reliable supply chains,” von der Leyen concluded.