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unhappycamper

(60,364 posts)
Thu Jun 26, 2014, 06:47 AM Jun 2014

Russian Riddle: EU Can't Agree on a Natural Gas Strategy

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/european-leaders-cannot-agree-on-contingency-plan-for-natural-gas-a-976929.html



European leaders agree that the Ukraine crisis has made natural gas supplies from Russia precarious. Yet they are divided over what to do about it. Poland wants a new European energy union, but others seem to be in no hurry.

Russian Riddle: EU Can't Agree on a Natural Gas Strategy
By Frank Dohmen and Christoph Pauly
June 24, 2014 – 05:13 PM

The flame last Tuesday was immense, rising some 200 meters (650 feet) into the air out of the natural gas pipeline named Brotherhood in eastern Ukraine. What caused the explosion remains a mystery. But it showed with shocking immediacy just how vulnerable Europe's energy supply has become as a result of the unrest in Ukraine.

A day before the explosion, Russian energy giant Gazprom had announced that it would only continue supplying Ukraine if the country paid for deliveries in advance. Because about half of Russian gas headed for Western Europe flows through Ukraine, European leaders now have a crucial topic to discuss at their summit this week in Brussels: Will deliveries to EU member states be affected?

At the same time, EU leaders are also wrangling over how to secure Europe's long-term natural gas supply. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is determined to demand more solidarity from his European partners. Others too have taken up his proposal to create a so-called energy union to reduce Europe's dependence on Gazprom.

But as so often happens in the EU, when it comes time to discuss the details, national interests diverge and friendships dissolve, particularly when money enters the picture.

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