Pipe It, Gerhard: EU Parliamentarians Shun Ex-Chancellor

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/european-parliament-wants-to-muzzle-ukraine-comments-from-schroeder-a-958497.html



Members of the conservatives and the Green Party in the European Parliament want to muzzle Gerhard Schröder. As the executive of a Russian pipeline company, they say, he should keep quiet about his views on the Ukraine conflict.

Pipe It, Gerhard: EU Parliamentarians Shun Ex-Chancellor
By Gregor Peter Schmitz in Brussels
March 13, 2014 – 04:35 PM

For the most part, members of the Green Party and conservatives in the European Parliament tend to be archrivals. But when they share a common foe, these two groups can come together with impressive speed. In their crosshairs this week is Gerhard Schröder.

Conservative members of the EU's legislative body enthusiastically sent around a draft of a joint resolution drafted by, among others, Rebecca Harms, the leading candidate for the Green Party heading into May's European elections. As part of a resolution parliament is preparing on the Crimea crisis, the politicians wanted to insert language taking a swipe at the former German chancellor's recent EU-critical remarks concerning the situation in Ukraine.

"The European Parliament regrets statements made by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder about the crisis in Ukraine," the paper reads, "and suggests he should make no public statements about Russia because his relationship with Gazprom, a company that is one of Russia's most important foreign policy instruments, creates a clear conflict of interest."

Of course, the former chancellor is no stranger to controversy, given his post-Berlin career in pipeline politics. He's now the chairman of the board of Nord Stream, the company operating a gas pipeline between Russia and Germany that is majority owned by Gazprom, and is a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin as well. In his recent comments, Schröder claimed that serious crisis management errors and a general lack of understanding of the region on the EU's part have exacerbated the Ukrainian conflict.