European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen [acknowledged](https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_26_1765) that Europe’s economic model had long rested on **“cheap imported energy,” open global trade, growing access to the Chinese market, US strategic protection and Western technological progress — advantages she said have now “disappeared.”**

Speaking at France’s MEDEF business conference in Paris, von der Leyen said European companies are now facing several shocks at once. The admission comes after years of Commission-led REPowerEU policies aimed at eliminating Russian fossil-fuel imports, with the bloc now moving toward a complete phaseout of Russian gas and oil.

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