Keynote speech by Commissioner Hoekstra at the European Sustainable Energy Week: 'Powering a fair and competitive green transition'

European Commission -Speech [Check Against Delivery] Keynote speech by Commissioner Hoekstra at the European Sustainable Energy Week: 'Powering a fair and competitive green transition' Brussels, 10 June 2025 Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon, everybody, I'm delighted to be here today. I know all of you are just as passionate as I am about the need to shift urgently to a cleaner energy future. Many of you are sustainable and renewable energy experts. Some of you work for local or national authorities driving initiatives on the ground. We even have young energy ambassadors here with us. So, in a way, you could say that I'm preaching to the converted. But I was never a big fan of being preached at myself. And I certainly don't want to preach to you. But what I do want to do is ask for your help. The reality is – as we reflect on where we stand with climate action and the clean transition, it might seem as though it's less at the top of people's mind as it used to be. The mood has shifted. The conversation has shifted. And frankly speaking, if you think about security and defence, I'm very much in favour of having it very high on the agenda given all the geopolitics Europe and the world are facing. And yet, there are also those out there who argue that prioritising economic competitiveness would mean lower climate ambitions. Slower on the clean transition. And that is where I truly have a different view. And I'm sure so do you. This is why I'm...