Europe’s defense capacity and energy have been in the Munich Security Conference in the wallpaper in an unprecedented way, says the energy company EONin subsidiary West energyn CEO Katherina Reiche Kauppalehti in connection with the Munich Safety Conference on Saturday.
There are 10,000 employees under Reiche who are responsible for the largest regional energy network in Germany. About 6.6 million German households receive their electricity and gas from Westenergie.
At the München Safety Conference, Reiche has met several energy players and delegations in different countries. As part of its energy breakthrough, Germany desperately needs raw materials and energy from abroad.
Reiche is trying to find out what US President Donald Trump Administrative energy policy is expected. Among other things, the new US administration resigned from the Paris Climate Convention and promised to start a new era of oil drilling.
“I talk to the Middle Eastern countries here and I follow with interest how these become international energy and industrial centers,” he adds.
Reiche thinks the US Vice President Jd vancen Friday’s speech was a revival to Europeans in two ways.
“The interests of the United States have changed in the multilateral world. In Europe, we must be able to go through our goals more confidently and look less into the past, ”he believes.
Facts
Katherina Reiche
Energy company EONin subsidiary Westergies CEO since 2019.
Chairman of the Wasserstoffrat, or Vetyala companies and researchers. The group works closely with the German Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Reiche is a former politician who, in his current role, is happy to speak for the green transition. The transition to which the United States and, of a certain extent, Ursula von Der Leyen’s EU Commission, which began to a certain extent in 2024, has begun to be flexible-albeit for different reasons.
“The price of energy and the security of supply has definitely risen to the top of European debate,” Reiche says.
“We should be able to solve these issues together.”
Survival and price above
Katherina Reiche believes that the United States will continue to adhere to projects based on renewable energy resources that are profitable even without government subsidies.
“Building solar panels in Texas or Arizona is still very economically sensible for the US.”
Is Europe -friendly at the forefront of Europe at a time when it comes to the prioritization of continental safety and the defense forces?
In a way, Reiche believes. For him, geopolitics and green transition are closely linked to each other. For example, the recently the breakdown of the Baltic States from the Russian energy network was essential to Europe’s ability to survive.
“Russia’s plans do not end in a ceasefire in Ukraine. Putin will continue his conflict with the West, which is why we have to do our best for the best resilience, ”Reiche sums up.
Germany is currently modeled on Finland, for example, in the field of critical infrastructure and cooperation between authorities. Various attack simulations and exercises have found their way into the everyday life of German energy companies.
“Different threats are combined into double and triple crises that are practiced as well as possible.”
“A dispute over the production of hydrogen in Europe”
In Germany, Reiche is a well -known green hydrogen lobbyist. According to him, hydrogen is an essential part of Germany’s own carbon neutral strategy. Germany is committed to carbon neutrality by 2045, ten years later in Finland.
Reiche says that hydrogen is a more sustainable alternative to traditional natural gas at EU level, a large part of which comes from outside Europe. He would like to speed up hydrogen projects. It would be essential to be able to enter into long, 15 or 20 years of supply contracts for hydrogen.
Reiche would also be ready to open Germany’s tight demand that the hydrogen it uses must be produced by renewable energy – that is, green hydrogen.
“The dispute about how hydrogen is produced has paralyzed Europe. For example, we should turn our gaze after the hydrogen’s carbon foot, ”Reiche says.
According to Reiche, there is Germany at the heart of the European market, where the entire industrial sectors that use hydrogen must be created. Reiche would ensure continuous demand by creating sector -specific quotas for hydrogen use, for example in the steel industry and in biomethane production.
“Hope Finland can wait for Germany”
What role does the energy manager see in Finland in the birth of the European Hydrogen Economy?
“Finns have always been technologically ahead of others. I hope that Finland can wait for Germany. ”
He refers to the upcoming Federation of Germany, which will be held on February 23. Reiche hopes for future leaders of the country to pragmatic approach in energy policy, which further reduces the bureaucracy associated with energy transfer.