EXCLUSIVE: IEA chief slams Europe’s ‘lazy, too laid-back’ energy policy

Europe is paying the price for misguided energy policymaking, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) told Euractiv in an interview in Brussels just hours after the EU finally agreed to ban all imports of Russian gas. 

From 30 September, Moscow gas flows will be turned off step-wise, ending a six-decade trade relationship that saw the EU slip “into a very bad situation” as Fatih Birol, who heads the Paris-based intergovernmental agency, put it.

“Europe made three major historical mistakes that prepared the framework conditions we were in as of February 2022,” the Turkish economist said, referring to the month when the Kremlin launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine.

“Overreliance on a single country for energy … turning its back on nuclear power … dropping the ball on solar PV manufacturing,” Birol said, listing what he saw as strategic mistakes by  European leaders.

All three have a common denominator: Germany. The the EU’s biggest consumer of Russian gas, which concluded its decade-long nuclear phase-out at the peak of the energy crisis – contrary to Birol’s advice – and once hosted numerous producers of solar panels.  

“One of the weakest policy domains of Europe has been energy policy,” the IEA chief added. “It was lazy, too laid-back, and did not take into account energy security and affordability as much as it should have over previous decades.” 

“We are paying for that now.”

(rh)