Beyond Talking the Talk

The EU Gets Serious About Energy Security

The Eastern Approaches column in The Economist comments that the European Commission has long talked a good game on energy security.

But its involvement in rewriting the  Polish-Russian gas deal has shown it can play hard too. The case set an important precedent both in underlining the Commission's authority and in confronting Gazprom’s divide-and-rule tactics.

For the last decade, the European Commission's problem has been not ideas, but enforcing them. The  soaring rate of non-compliance on renewables targets was one indicator. Its inability to challenge the Nord Stream pipeline the most striking example.

Not any more. The  Commission  prevented Poland from extending and expanding its gas contract with Gazprom, demanding that the new agreement incorporate critical unbundling regulations . That annoyed some bits of the Polish government, particularly the the Economics Minister, Waldemar Pawlak. This was no one-time wonder. On November 15, the European Commission required third party access rules to be incorporated in the Bulgarian-Russian South Stream construction agreement. That has annoyed Gazprom, so the Commission will set up working groups with officials from the Russian gas giant to explain the new rules, and the EU's expectations for its dealings with the CEE region.

The Commission, which once squeaked like a mouse, is now roaring, and tramping all over what was once the uncontested habitat of the "abominable gasman".

Source: The Economist