New Eastern Europe: Revitalised Competition in the European Gas Game
Late last month, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka warned that rebels in Ukraine posed a grave risk to Central European energy security because of their control over pipelines in eastern Ukraine that deliver Russian gas to Europe. The statement reflects overall concerns in Europe about energy security, and underscores the need for Europe to find an alternative to Russian energy imports. There was a lot of positive sentiment at a recent conference held by the Atlantic Council in Ankara. Atlantic Council President Frederick Kempe and US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz spoke of the critical period Europe was in with regards to energy security, but overall the conference atmosphere was one of positivity and optimism for Europe’s energy future.
Current developments in European energy politics mean that there is now a window of opportunity for the Southern Corridor to develop into a truly viable provider of European energy. Yet even if an alternative to imports of Russian energy (especially those transiting Ukraine) is found, Russia is not out of the European energy game by a long shot. In the recent past, the major energy contest between the EU and Russia was the issue of the EU-backed Nabucco versus the Russia-supported South Stream. Now, however, it seems that a fresh new competition between the Southern Gas Corridor and Russia-backed efforts centred on the Black Sea and Turkey will play a crucial role in EU-Russia energy relations in the near future.
After years of bidding and negotiations, the South Stream project won against rival Nabucco to be the main provider of energy into southern Europe. Nevertheless, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that Russia would scrap the South Stream gas pipeline project, ultimately because the Bulgarian government did not want Bulgaria to be a party to the project. President Putin described the European Commission’s position toward South Stream as being “unconstructive”, and conceded that if the European Union did not want to see to the construction of the pipeline then it would not happen.
The South Stream Project, however, was not without its supporters among European leaders. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán recently signed a strategic partnership agreement with Azerbaijan regarding the transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Central Europe by way of pipeline interconnectors. Previously, however, Orbán had supported the South Stream Pipeline, much to the chagrin of other European leaders.