New Eastern Europe: From Brussels with Regulations

On July 1st 2015, Russia’s state-owned gas company, Gazprom, announced that had it ceased deliveries of natural gas to Ukraine for the fifth time in a decade. The decision was the result of a breakdown in negotiations between Ukraine and Russia on a new agreement concerning the price of gas. For Gazprom and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the breakdown in negotiations represents a fresh opportunity to illustrate to EU Member States that Ukraine is an unreliable partner and that it would therefore be in EU states’ interests to engage directly with Gazprom and do away with Ukrainian transit altogether. In fact, Gazprom repeatedly stated that it intends to do just that after 2019. However, in promoting alternative pipeline routes such as the Turkish Stream and Nord Stream, which bypass Ukraine, Putin and Gazprom forget that in Europe, politics do not trump the rule of law; rather it is the rule of law that trumps politics.

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