The EU’s “nonsense” policies will force people in Slovakia to burn wood for heating and take the country “back to the 1930s,” Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has warned.
At a press conference on Sunday, Fico criticized the Emissions Trading System for buildings and road transport (ETS2), which is set to take full effect in 2027.
The controversial scheme expands the EU’s carbon trading rules to cover households and vehicles. Fico predicted that it will drive up gas prices, which are already high due to the EU’s rejection of affordable Russian energy.
“We are going back to the 1930s and 1940s again, and our valleys and villages will be shrouded in smoke,” Fico said.
The prime minister noted that Slovakia has spent years expanding gas access for households. Driving fuel prices even higher will encourage people to revert to older heating methods, leading to more pollution, he argued.
A joint lobbying effort by Slovakia and more than a dozen other EU member states resulted this month in a promise by EU executive to explore “additional ways to strengthen the stability and predictability” of energy prices before the ETS2 is rolled out.
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The European Commission aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90% from 1990 levels by 2040. The EU also intends to fully eliminate imports from Russia as part of its Ukraine-related sanctions policy.
Critics, including Fico, have argued that these initiatives are unrealistic and self-destructive, undermining Europe’s industrial competitiveness and driving up the cost of living across member states.
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