Europe’s Energy Delusion: Can Brussels Keep the Lights On? I MCC Brussels Deep Dive

In this MCC Brussels Deep Dive, John O’Brien speaks to Professor Samuele Furfari, one of Europe’s most experienced voices on energy policy. Furfari spent decades inside the European Commission working on energy and sustainable development. His warning is blunt: Europe’s energy crisis did not begin with the war in Ukraine and we also not blame the war in Iran. It began when EU policymakers abandoned the old priority of cheap, abundant and secure energy, and replaced it with a decarbonisation-first agenda. For decades, European energy policy understood a basic truth: prosperity depends on power. Industry, jobs, living standards and national security all require reliable and affordable energy. But according to Furfari, Brussels has increasingly treated energy not as the foundation of growth, but as a problem to be reduced, regulated and morally denounced. John and Professor Furfari discuss how this mentality took hold, why Europe has become so vulnerable, and whether the EU has learnt the wrong lesson from the energy shocks of recent years. This is a conversation about more than bills. It is about prosperity, sovereignty, industry and whether Europe still has the seriousness to keep the lights on. Please read our reports on EU Energy politics here: Why We Need Nuclear: Towards a future of plenty https://brussels.mcc.hu/publication/why-we-need-nuclear-towards-a-future-of-plenty Lights out: Is the EU failing on energy policy? https://brussels.mcc.hu/publication/lights-out-is-the-eu-failing-on-energy-policy-1 Follow MCC Brussels on social media: https://twitter.com/MCC_Brussels https://facebook.com/MCCBrussels https://linkedin.com/company/mcc-brussels/ website: https://brussels.mcc.hu