EU risks "conflict and strife" over high energy costs this winter: Timmermans

The EU is at risk of seeing "very, very strong conflict and strife" this winter over high energy costs, the vice president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, warned in an interview with the Guardian on July 8. And the EU should increase the supply of fossil fuels in the short-term to alleviate the crisis, he said.

Natural gas and power prices are already soaring amid reductions in Russian gas flow that have exacerbated an energy crisis that began last year. And European officials have warned that Moscow cut off supply completely, in order to destabilise the EU and force its leaders to make concessions in the Ukraine conflict.

"If our society descends into very, very strong conflict and strife because there is no energy, we're certainly not going to make our [climate] goals," Timmermans warned. "We're certainly not going to get where we need to get if the lack of energy leads to strong disruption in our societies, and we need to make sure people are not in the cold in the coming winter."

"We need to make sure we keep our industry, as much as possible, functioning because the one thing that could help Putin is divisions in our society," he said.

The EU must first tackle the immediate crisis of energy supply in order to focus properly on the climate crisis further long the way, the official said. He also dampened expectations for the COP27 climate summit due to take place in Egypt in November, warning that there was currently little enthusiasm about increasing national determined contributions (NDCs).