RSSUnited We Stand?
Oct 04
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JURMALA – A common energy policy for the European Union seemed to have become a buzz phrase in recent months, especially here in the Baltics.
It seems like a month doesn’t go by that a conference isn’t being held somewhere in the Baltic region honing in on the future of the energy supply for the EU’s 27 countries, largely targeted at our Eastern neighbor.
Right now, it appears utterly futile to unite 27 different national priorities and interests into one single policy. Too many different voices produce too little solidarity.
“In general, we, in the European Union, should deal with energy security and energy supplies for the future,” Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Verhagen told journalists following a meeting in Jurmala among foreign ministers from the Netherlands and Luxembourg, a representative from Belgium and foreign ministers from the three Baltic states.
However, addressing issues particularly related to Nord Stream, a gas pipeline connecting Russia with Germany and bypassing the Baltics, Verhagen became somewhat contradictory.
“I‘m not against the Nord Stream line, but I‘m in favour of energy solidarity and energy security for all the member states,” he said.
‘Energy solidarity’ is especially important for the three Baltic states, who joined this club in 2004. However, Germany’s national interests in the Russian pipe dream, for example, prevent it from standing up for fellow EU member when Russia unsuccessfully bullies poor “fascist” Estonia into agreement to research its seabed as a possible route for Nord Stream.
So much for solidarity.
The next energy conference – in Vilnius next week – plans to address the issues related to global energy security challenges and the future guidelines for the EU external energy policy.
And right now, it looks as though the unity in the united Europe is just a pipe dream.
The map of Nord Stream gas pipeline taken from the Baltic Times.
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