Prof. Dr. Rafael Leal-Arcas is Professor of European and International Economic Law, Queen Mary University of London, he is also Jean Monnet Chair in EU International Economic Law.
Eurasia Diary Exclusivel interview with Prof. Dr. Rafael Leal-Arcas.
Eurasia Diary: How do you see this 7th international energy sustainable development conference in Baku?
Rafael Leal-Arcas: First of all, thank you very much for inviting me to be here. This is the 3th forum that I come, the first one was in 2014, it took place in Hammamet Tunisia, the second one was last year in Yerevan, Armenia and third one is here in Baku, Azerbaijan. The whole idea is to bring together professionals, academics and researchers who are interested in sustainable energy and specifically we think sustainable energy is one of the 17thsustainable development goals number 7. These all ideas are about energy security, access to energy with an unaffordable price. Why this is important? Today there are 1.4 billion people who have no access to energy. There are in two very distinct areas of the world, Sub Saharan Africa and developing Asia –South Asia and Southeast Asia. This is one of the greatest challenges manifested today.
Eurasia Diary: Let’s come to the England. What is going to be happen there after Brexit? What are the current challenges?
Rafael Leal-Arcas: We have four main challenges in the European Union. The first one is Brexit as you know on the 23th of June in 2016, the UK had referendum to leave the EU and they said yes. When will it happen we do not know, most likely 2 years from now? The second problem is immigration. People are coming mainly from Syria as you know there is a war going on in Syria. Therefore, a lot of migrants are going from Syria to Turkey and from there to Greece, Germany and other countries of all European Union. The third issue I would argue is economy and most specifically “euro”-the single currency. A lot of people are arguing that problem with EU in terms of integration is the single currency. Last problem is unemployment. In some countries in European Union especially in Spain, Greece, Italy and Portugal unemployment of young people is as high as 50 percent. This is a tragedy and one of the greatest challenges we have in EU.
Eurasia Diary: Do you think that these all problems and challenges are the self created by the Europe, England and USA. Because crises like migrants which are coming from Syria and Iraq and this region. This region was because Tony Blair said that Saddam Hussein has chemical and biological weapons and weapons of mass destructions so no one recovered these WMD?
Rafael Leal-Arcas: You are absolutely right. Whole reason for US and UK to invade Iraq was so called weapons of mass destruction but we know they do not exist. It is real shame in my view what the West has done to Muslim, Arab nation. Iraq in this case has been destroyed for no reason. Because there are no weapons of mass destruction and today what we see is tremendous fiasco happening in Iraq unnecessarily because of the greed of the west.
Eurasia Diary: Do you think that current Prime Minister of England is going to take a U-turn from the Brexit?
Rafael Leal-Arcas: I do believe that new Prime Minister of the UK Theresa May is Brexiter. She is in favor of UK leaving the EU. We do not know under what terms and conditions. She said recently is that from March 2017 she will start the negotiations with EU in order to get ready for Brexit. It will happen which has do not know how will happen.
Eurasia Diary: You said you have been 2th international energy sustainable development conference in Armenia. So how do you think that Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant, because it is one damaged nuclear plant Do you think that it is going to be another nuclear disaster like Fukushima, in Japan and we can see its circumstances?
Rafael Leal-Arcas: I hope that will not be a case as you said Fukushima was a terrible example of a disaster in nuclear energy of Japan. That is why I said some countries are favor of nuclear energy and as I said in a case of Europe it is divided as a topic some countries are in favor of nuclear energy and others are against of it.
Eurasia Diary: According this international conference there is future of the sustainable energy after the Paris conference and some meetings. What do you think that USA is driving all the natural resources they are collecting and now giving lollypop?
Rafael Leal-Arcas: It is very important example of year which is the Paris agreement on climate change and prepared the concept last December 2015 in France and also on the October in 2016 just in a few days it will be ratified this is very good news. It is the first time the international community has united to take climate change issue very seriously. As a result of that we get there for sustainable energy which is the topic of this conference. For the future I am very optimistic that was the first time we have legal document and that is going to implemented very soon and therefore we are able to international community to need climate change and move forward for stainable energy. Most specifically vulnerable energy there is a lot to be done legally, technologically for the benefit of everyone not only the west also the rest.
Eurasia Diary: How do you see that potential of sustainable development energy in this South Caucasus, CIS and this whole region?
Rafael Leal-Arcas: Azerbaijan is a country of very rich of fossil oil and gas my suggestion is to move forward both in terms of fossils fuels gradually investing in vulnerable energy for the benefit of mitigating of climate change.
