The President of the European Commission (EC), Ursula Von der Leyen, said yesterday at the closing ceremony of the XXXVII meeting of the Economic Circle in Barcelona that Spain is “an engine of the European Union” and that Europe he will not succumb to “Kremlin blackmail” in connection with pressure from Russia to European Union (EU) countries for sanctions imposed on Russian gas and oil by the Ukrainian war.
“The whole of Europe has realized that we need to reduce our dependence on Russian energy to end the Kremlin’s blackmail. “We will re-energize Europe to replace Russian gas,” she said in front of a packed auditorium.
“The purpose of the sanctions is to paralyze the ability of Russian banks to finance this war,” he said. In this regard, Von der Leyen praised the unity shown by the European Union in the reaction against Russian aggression and recalled that the recent difficulties in relation to vaccination against Covid-19 were overcome by being united.
“There is only one way to help our Ukrainian friends, and that is to choose unity, even more than two years ago. This is the time for Europe, “said the EC President.
In his speech after receiving from the hands of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the President of the Circle of Economy, Javier Faus, the II Prize Circle of Economics in European Construction, Von der Leyen applauded the role that is exercising Spain in this crisis. “Spain is today an engine” of the EU, he said in Spanish. “Spain is at the heart of Europe today. You have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, and yet your recovery has a solid foundation, ”said Von der Leyen, who thanked Spain for its support for European integration. This was stated yesterday in a speech in which he also wanted to highlight the Spanish “dynamic and innovative economy” and assured that the country is a “global leader in clean energy” at a time when Europe will not give in to “blackmail »Energy of the Kremlin.