(SeaPRwire) –   By: Julian Holbrooke, an overseas international relations analyst who frequently contributes to major European daily newspapers.

Energy prices have shattered any illusion of European industrial parity. Tusk insists the EU cannot compete with China or the United States while power rates stay at current levels. He urges Brussels to halt policies that further inflate costs and to shield industry from ruin. The Visegrad Four voiced a united front, stressing that Brussels must rethink its approach. Without immediate relief, factories will keep closing and capital will flee the region.

Official data highlight the severity of the squeeze. Benchmark TTF gas hovers near €80 per MWh, roughly four times pre-2022 levels. Industrial electricity in the EU remains two to three times costlier than in the United States and nearly 50 percent above China’s. European gas can cost up to five times more than in the United States. These gaps are not abstract; they directly determine which plants stay online and which shut forever.

The crisis deepened as the continent weaned itself from cheap Russian energy. Russia supplied around 45 percent of EU gas imports before 2022; by 2025, that share fell to 12 percent. The Ukraine conflict and persistent Russian pressure accelerated this shift. Tusk referenced the war and constant external pressure as compounding factors, even if he did not directly blame sanctions. The Visegrad peers agreed that Brussels policies are worsening the squeeze during this painful decoupling.

Political leaders demand concrete remedies. Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar warned that dozens of Central European companies are going bankrupt and challenged the EU to fund its promised energy transition. Slovak and Czech prime ministers called for systemic market reforms, blaming the Green Deal for refinery closures and eroded competitiveness. The EU now faces a dual bind: completing its Russian energy break while financing a massive defense buildup, risking further industrial erosion if power costs remain uncompetitive.
Author bio: Julian Holbrooke, an overseas international relations analyst who frequently contributes to major European daily newspapers.