“Diversification and renewable energy sources are important not only from the point of view of the climate, but above all from the point of view of strategic independence in the field of energy” – said Teresa Czerwińska at the Banking Forum & 19th Insurance Forum.
The direction was set by the European Green Deal or the European Digital Strategy, even before the outbreak of Covid. The current situation only confirms the rightness of the chosen direction and determination in implementing the chosen strategy – emphasized the vice-president of the European Investment Bank (EIB). Diversification and renewable energy sources are important not only from the point of view of the climate, but above all from the point of view of strategic energy independence, added Czerwińska. Reducing fossil fuel imports from Russia only exacerbates this trend, she said.
Czerwińska pointed out that apart from energy independence, Europe must create its own “ecosystem” of production and research on semiconductors. She reminded that today the EU has approx. 10 percent. semiconductor market share. The new strategy currently being implemented (the European Digital Strategy) assumes that by 2030 the EU market share will double.
The deputy head of the EIB indicated that achieving energy and technological independence would require “huge investments, especially in the region of Central and Eastern Europe”. She recalled that last year in Poland, the EIB group financed investments “in a record amount” of EUR 6.5 billion. “In this way, for the first time Poland was in fourth place in terms of financing among the 27 EU Member States,” she stressed.
According to Czerwińska, the transformation will require expenditure from both public and private budgets.