Slowly, reluctantly, the European Union is being forced into new policy terrain, as the onset of a continent-wide energy crunch threatens the social fabric of the twenty-seven-nation bloc. Speaking to the EU parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen used her annual State of the Union address to present the slate of new measures designed to alleviate a deepening cost-of-living crisis, touting the “social market economy” ostensibly at the core of the European project.

Wearing the colors of the Ukrainian flag, Von der Leyen reaffirmed the bloc’s commitment to sanctions against Russia in retaliation for Moscow’s seven-month-old invasion of Ukraine. Europe is “in it for the long haul,” the top figure in the EU’s hierarchy declared, as continental leaders scramble to respond to near-double-digit inflation and the risk of an oncoming recession.

Already at historic lows, Russian gas imports to the European Union fell to a trickle after Gazprom, the Russian energy giant with close ties to the Kremlin, indefinitely suspended gas imports to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline on September 2. Russian officials have said that the reopening of the pipeline will be conditioned on the lifting of EU sanctions, while by the end of 2022, the EU’s embargo on Russian oil will come into full effect. Bracing for a winter without the usual flow of Russian hydrocarbons, European planners are hedging against the threat that inflation exhaustion will reshape the region’s politics and undermine support for sanctions.