Ivan Jančárek: "Our goal is for Europe to be energy independent in the long term"

On the occasion of the Czech Republic's presidency of the Council of the European Union during this semester, its ambassador to Spain, Ivan Jančárek, participated together with students from Nebrija University in an informative breakfast organised by the Faculty of Law and International Relations. Accompanied by its dean, Alfonso López de la Osa, and the president of the European League for Economic Cooperation, Francesc Homs, he discussed the main challenges facing the European Union.

"We are facing the most complicated conflict for Europe since the Second World War", the Czech ambassador acknowledged at the start of his speech, referring to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Under the slogan "Europe as a task: rethink, rebuild and strengthen", the diplomat addressed, among other things, the consequences of the conflict, the delicate energy situation in Europe and the role of the Czech Republic in this scenario.

In this regard, Ivan Jančárek highlighted four main priorities of the Czech Presidency within the Council of the European Union: the management of the refugee crisis and the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine, the strengthening of European defence capabilities and cyber security, the resilience of democratic institutions and the European economy, and energy security. 

All these proposals depend first and foremost on how long it takes for the conflict initiated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine to be resolved. The Czech ambassador assured that "the EU will support Ukraine to the end". This support is not only military, it is also "essential" that Europe contributes economically and helps in the "deep social crisis" of a war that has already caused more than seven million Ukrainians to flee their homes.

Ivan Jančárek also stressed the priority of rebuilding Ukraine as soon as possible after the end of the conflict. A territory that is more than 600,000 km2 in size and whose reparation requires the recovery of its sovereignty, its territorial integrity and progress towards the country's economic recovery, in the words of the ambassador. However, he stressed that, despite the involvement of the European Union, "final peace depends exclusively on Ukraine and Russia".

With respect to the delicate energy crisis that Europe is going through, the Czech ambassador revealed some optimistic data, such as the almost 90% reduction in Europe's energy dependence on Russia compared to before the war, or the 93% capacity of Europe's energy reserves. However, these statistics are not enough, since "the problem is not that there is a shortage, because there is enough gas all over the world; the key lies in the market's reaction to volatile situations". Moreover, he warns that "this winter will be complicated, but next winter will be even more so". 

The solution to this problem, according to the Czech ambassador, is to improve Europe's energy rigidity and efficiency and to look for other countries to fill Russia's role in the first place, and to rethink the European energy model in the long term. "In the future we will not be able to count on Russian gas, but I don't think the EU should be energy dependent on other countries in the future either. The goal is for Europe to produce its own energy in 20 or 30 years' time, and that is where we need to invest a lot technologically and scientifically," said Ivan Jančárek.

This is an ambitious goal in which renewable energies have a key role to play, but it requires building more infrastructure, studying possible additional sources of energy and making the European energy grid more interconnected, among other things. "We have to ensure, on the one hand, that Europe's energy sources are always prepared for possible extreme events such as Philomena and where gas consumption is rising sharply and, on the other hand, we have to make this process affordable," he said. 

Finally, and in response to the precise questions from the Nebrija students, the Czech ambassador warned of the lack of individual freedom in the face of the appearance of new technologies. A problem of which the European Union is aware and which involves trying to limit the use of our data by governments and companies. "If we continue like this, in a few years we will have an existential crisis in which we are already seeing how some technological advances are serving to control society more, as is happening in China and Russia," said Ivan Jančárek.

In this sense, the EU needs to invest not only in new technologies such as artificial intelligence or cybersecurity, but also in raising society's awareness of them. "Not all EU spending needs to be social, we need to prepare for the future, and the future is about more and more technologically educated people who are aware of the risks of sharing their private lives online".