European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned on Friday that geo-economic instability has become the new norm in international relations, anticipating that these tensions will continue to escalate.
The European official said – during a climate conference in Hamburg, Germany – that “2024 will be a decisive year. Experts expect economic tensions to increase again, from the Red Sea to the Taiwan Strait.”
“This also means more frequent outages in supply networks and major fluctuations in energy markets,” she added, adding, “International competition is intensifying. It is the new normal, and we must adapt to it.”
The ongoing Red Sea crisis has fueled global fears that inflation is likely to rise again if it continues for a long time.
Since last November, the Houthi group has been targeting ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden linked to Israel, in solidarity with the people of the Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to an Israeli war since last October 7.
The President of the European Commission believed that the increasing frequency of extreme climate events requires Europeans to “unite their forces more than ever before,” especially in terms of gradually abandoning fossil energy sources and removing the carbon footprint from their economies.
Von der Leyen defended the European Green Charter, which reflects “a clear vision that allows Europe to be the first climate-neutral continent in history.”
She stressed that the Green Charter provides “the necessary sound planning that investors all over the world seek” in order to develop renewable energies.
The Green Charter is an environmental roadmap developed by the European Commission with the aim of transforming a large number of sectors so that the European Union can achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
The Green Charter is still incomplete, as many of its provisions remain under negotiation, and the agricultural part of it, which stipulates the strengthening of environmental regulations, arouses the anger of farmers in Europe.
