Many in the EU may not realise it, but we are at war, and it’s not only Ukraine. It’s World War III, in hybrid form and in different ways, and all of us are affected.
‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ has become a pop-culture icon, but originally it was a motivational poster produced by the British government in 1939 in preparation for World War II. The poster successfully boosted the morale of the British public, anxious about widely predicted mass air attacks on major British cities.
It’s strange that today, in times of powerful communication tools, we lack such motivational messages.
This writer of the Brief was preparing to say that Vladimir Putin’s strategy is to win the war by capitalising on the EU’s addiction to Russian gas. In such a strategy, supply disruptions and soaring prices will force EU governments to push for a peace agreement on Putin’s terms.
Reuters was faster and published such an analysis yesterday. This is why I would rather follow up with suggestions on what we should do to avoid such development.
In the absence of other motivational messages, let’s Keep Calm and Carry On.
In Bulgaria, my country of origin, which is hugely dependent on Russian gas due to collaborationism by all successive governments except the very last one, I hear panic in the voices of various opinion-makers every day.
Their message is that Russian gas is irreplaceable and Ukraine should surrender so we could all have peace and return to the life we used to have.
But I see such messages in Western societies, in countries like France and Italy.
In Bulgaria, some of the authors of such messages are doing it out of self-interest because Gazprom has created a vast clientelist network. Others are paid agents, and many are useful idiots who do the job for free.
Let’s not mince our words: This winter will be hard and unusual. On the one hand, energy prices will skyrocket, and on the other, energy will be scarce, especially in case of bigger gas disruptions. Europeans will turn to electricity for heating, but there will be shortages, possibly blackouts.
In such a mad world, there is a lot of space for the European Commission to step up and show leadership in several directions.
One is to ensure that the scarcity of Russian gas doesn’t automatically lead to skyrocketing prices. This market rule has profited only Putin’s Gazprom, which sells us less gas, if any, but gets more money from it.
It is a disgrace if the Russian ruble, instead of collapsing due to the sanctions, is considered the world’s best-performing currency for the year.
Another one is to cap energy prices at acceptable levels and authorise state aid to mitigate the problems for both consumers and businesses.
Faced with COVID, the EU adopted bold measures to help overcome pandemic-related economic problems – the so-called Recovery Plan. An even bolder program is needed fast to overcome the energy issue.
If the Czech presidency of the EU Council wants to call an EU summit on the issue, it would be most timely.
Another one is to close sanctions loopholes. It is inconceivable that after the EU has banned exports of Russian oil, the same oil gets exported to Asia via Greek ports.
More than anything else, the Commission should contract amounts of gas outside Russia for the EU, as it did for the vaccines in 2020-21. Today, individual EU countries compete with each other, which drives the prices mad.
Last but not least, energy savings are needed. This is an area where the Commission has already appealed to member states, among other things, to reduce the normal gas consumption by 15%.
But more stringent measures are necessary. The Commission may not make them mandatory across the bloc, but it needs to steer the process and guide member states.
For now, we don’t see such a direction.
Possibly Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has some initiatives to share with us next month, on the occasion of the State of the Union speech.
Let’s hope she finds some inspiration. Twentieth-century Europe should provide abundant examples of the much-needed leadership expected from her.
The Roundup
The leaders of ex-Soviet rivals Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to meet in Brussels next Wednesday (31 August) for EU-mediated talks, Armenia’s government said.
Under pressure from public opinion and the media, a Bulgarian court of appeal surprisingly overturned an earlier ruling on Thursday (25 August) and refused the extradition to Moscow of a Russian national who had burned his passport in Bulgaria in protest against the war in Ukraine.
Cooperation and knowledge exchanges between European towns can play a key role in integrating newcomers, experts say, adding that their inclusion strategies can also serve as a model for larger European cities.
From the country’s first-ever nuclear programme to 100% renewable electricity, EURACTIV looks at the energy and climate promises of the political parties ahead of the Italian election, scheduled on 25 September.
Germany’s emergency plan to get the building and transport sectors on track for climate neutrality failed to achieve their targets, according to the country’s expert-led Climate Council.
France’s TotalEnergies – the only Western oil company that still operates in Russia – allegedly produced gas condensate that was transformed into the jet fuel the Russian air force used to bomb Ukrainian cities, an investigation published on Wednesday (24 August) reported.
The European Commission said Thursday it will soon reply to complaints received from MEPs about British sewage allegedly being poured into waters shared with the EU.
Ahead of the COP27 summit scheduled for November, there are fears African governments will use the threat of exploiting fossil fuel reserves to push European nations to keep their promises on climate change, investments and infrastructure.
Look out for…
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meets young volunteers from the Taizé community.
Views are the author’s.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Alice Taylor/Nathalie Weatherald]
Source link : https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/opinion/the-brief-keep-calm-and-carry-on/
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Publish date : 2022-08-25 07:00:00
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