Energy crisis can also be an opportunity: PM Meloni

Newswire

Rome: The energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine can be an opportunity for Italy to position itself as Europe’s energy supply hub, Premier Giorgia Meloni said this week.

“Today the energy issue is strategic, and it will certainly become increasingly so,” said Meloni in a video message for the 70th anniversary of the foundation of Italian energy giant Eni. “The war in Ukraine has triggered a crisis from many points of view, including on energy, but I am convinced that this crisis can as always also become an opportunity,” she continued.

“And the opportunity may come from our geographical position and the leadership that companies such as Eni have been able to build. We can aspire to become the natural energy supply hub for the whole of Europe,” added Meloni.

The premier said the energy issue is also crucial “to give a fairer and more equitable direction to the ecological transition”.

For the government, she said, this “must go hand in hand with social and economic sustainability” and requires “all technologies: those already in use, those we are experimenting with and those we have yet to discover”, citing “renewables, gas, biofuels, hydrogen, carbon capture, but also all those technologies that enable us to increasingly transform the economy from linear to circular”.

“And then there is the great challenge of fusion energy: I know that Eni’s researchers are working daily to make this incredible prospect of having a clean and unlimited source of energy a reality,” said Meloni.