«Peanuts against Putin». Thus he titled Il Foglio, taking up the words used by Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian MEP, who yesterday commented on the announcement made by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on the choice to ban the import of coal from Russia but not gas.
And if the Prime Minister Mario Draghi in these days remains cautious while waiting for European decisions, making it clear that he would not veto any, the secretary of the Democratic Party Enrico Letta has been insisting for days on the need for a total block of energy imports from Russia. And to Foglio he explains his position: «I think giving up Russian gas and oil is an absolute priority. And going in this direction means accelerating everything. It means hastening the end of the war. It means accelerating the peace processes. It means taking resources away from Putin’s Russia and his follies. It also means accelerating other processes, such as that of building a European energy sustainability, and then, by virtue of a new and crucial balance, accelerating some necessary measures to be implemented to avoid the third recession ».
Banning coal as the @EU_Commission proposes is peanuts if you compare it to gas and oil… and will definitely not stop Putin’s war crimes…
Read the letter of 211 MEP’s on what really needs to be done! pic.twitter.com/baBfdlPecg
– Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) April 5, 2022
“Banning coal as the European Commission proposes is little if compared to gas and oil and it will certainly not stop Putin’s war crimes,” wrote Verhofstadt. Which also published data on energy imports from Russia: from February 24 to today, the day of the invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has paid 19.3 billion euros for fossil fuels in Moscow: 9 billion for oil , 9.6 billion for gas and only 712 million for coal. So, reacting to Bucha’s gruesome images by banning the import of coal is like arming yourself with peanuts.
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