the case today and we need in the european union to really accelerate the withdrawal from our over reliance on oil and gas from russia. and we need to do that by investing elsewhere in renewables, as many other of our allies need to do as well. so i would just say to you. but you talk about urgency. you said to me, stephen, i totally understand your point about urgency. this matters every single day. as we speak. you know, commissioner, as well as i do, as we speak, the people left in towns like mariupol are suffering bombardment without food, without water, on the brink of starvation today. and you re telling me, oh, well, you know, we have to maintain unity in the european union. this isn t something we re united on right now. we ll keep discussing it. when are you going to make a decision that might help ukraine, by taking that decision to cut off oil and gas imports from russia ?
you saying that the ukrainian message to you, through the finance minister, is that, you know, he s pleased with the action so far. i don t know if you heard president zelensky himself two days ago say this 0ur western partners have not completed the sanctions on disconnecting the banking system from swift. that is the international transaction system. many banks that matter have not been disconnected, and that s particularly true in europe of those banks which handle the financial transactions which give payments to russia for oil and gas. why will you not ensure that swift transactions are blocked for all russian banks, including those banks which handle the energy transactions? well, i did say, just to correct you, that the minister of finance asked us to do more, and indeed i m aware of the words of president zelensky. i listened very carefully to it, and you will understand, because it s been a very open comment, that the issue around
so i would just say to your remarks around president macron, honesty s important between friends, and i think ukraine knows that europe is its friend. all right. we re running short of time. just some quickfire questions on other parts of your portfolio and the eu. energy and green issues are vitally important to the eu. you ve got this sort of commitment to decarbonisation, to a green energy transition. ijust wonder, with the current sort of panic over energy supplies, given the europeans have pledged to wean themselves off russian oil and gas, what sense does it make and this is something that you re involved in what sense does it make to suddenly decide that gas fired power plants are sustainable and to classify them as such going forward with the eu s green agenda? to environmentalists, that makes no sense whatsoever. i think you only gave part of the sentence. so, we ve classified nuclear and gas as sustainable in transition. they have a particular part in our so called taxono
economic activities. and what we are doing. and i think it s more urgent than ever, and i hope people will see it from this perspective. in our delineation of these two energy sources, we say they are time bound, so they help us in the transition, but we want investment in renewables. we will need investment in these areas, nuclear because it s low carbon and gas because it s a transition fuel. but we also will require that those, for example, gas plants will be adaptable to hydrogen in the future. isn t it much better that we channel private investment with those constraints rather than leaving it outside of our taxonomy with no constraints? well, here s what greenpeace say. greenpeace say that you re taking billions of euros away from renewables, sinking them into technologies that either do nothing to fight the climate crisis, like nuclear, or which actively make the problem worse, like fossil gas. what kind of sense does that make? well, i think, just to make this point very clear,
people have lost their lives. there are people who are not getting water and food, humanitarian aid, although we are working to try and, with humanitarian organisations, get those supplies into the country. so we are doing a lot and, of course. does it worry you. ? yeah, it s not about sort of me or my feelings. but does it worry you when ukraine s foreign minister just four days ago said this what i have seen in the last ten days in the european union and he was referring to the refusal to close ports to all russian vessels, he was referring to the lack of action on swift blocking for key russian banks, he was also, of course, referring to oil and gas imports he said, what i see is backsliding in the european union back to a normality. it cannot take strong and swift action, and that is regrettable. those are the words of the ukrainian foreign minister. well, i think if i were the ukrainian foreign minister, i might say exactly the same.