Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Poland say that Europe must speed up decision-making, better mobilize capital and strengthen competitiveness and defense cooperation. They are therefore planning an alliance, and even the European Commission no longer rules out the creation of a two-speed Europe. Where can it lead and what does it mean for the Czech Republic?
From my point of view, two-speed Europe is a project promoted by certain member countries that would like to manage the entire EU from Brussels. We are a confident and active member of the European Union.
We have been in government for two months, and within the framework of the European Council on Competitiveness, we have already written a very specific twelve-point proposal on how to solve the competitiveness of Europe. Our proposal says that the fastest way to increase it is a consistent revision of the directive on emission allowances ETS 1.
I gradually gained the support of some of the leaders of the member states for this, if only in the fact that others started talking about it. I talked about it with the Italian Prime Minister Meloni and with the German Chancellor Merz, who recognized during the debate at the European Council that this is a problem that needs to be solved.
We also won Austrian Chancellor Stocker to our side. I spoke with French President Macron, Polish Prime Minister Tusk and other leaders. This is precisely why we want a coalition of friends of competitiveness to be created.
Can you elaborate on the Czech proposal to reduce the price of allowances, which are actually a fee that allows companies to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide and motivates them to reduce emissions?
We have clearly shown what negative effects the system has on the competitiveness of European industry, how expensive emission allowances are suffocating energy-intensive companies, which then have to limit production.
This was also confirmed by the former Italian Prime Minister and President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, when he stated in his report on competitiveness in September 2024 that the metallurgical industry lost fifteen percent of its capacity due to emission allowances. Similarly, the chemical industry and others.
By the way, already in September 2021, as prime minister, I talked about the need to cap ETS 1 prices at 30 euros, but nothing has happened since then. And now, five years later, I say the same thing.
However, Draghi would like a strongly centralized EU, which is not our way. Our strategy is respect for national specifics and sovereignty. While they talk about the single internal market, I talk about the single energy market.
Because if one megawatt-hour of electricity in Portugal costs, for example, four euros, in France 50 euros, in Germany 110, in our country 130 and in Estonia 200, then this is a fundamental problem.
So what about that?
Key for the entire EU are lower energy prices, but also less regulation and, of course, support for European industry. We need the interconnection of electrical networks, as Germany and Denmark have created. However, we need these energy highways to go from Germany to the Czech Republic.
We have a very pragmatic solution. After all, we have everything in our Economic Strategy, which was prepared by the Minister of Industry and Trade, Karel Havlíček, and which receives very positive responses from the professional public.
