The European Union Is Heading Into Battle
BusinessInsider.com
Jan. 17, 2015
Energy, the European Commission believes, should flow freely to and between EU members. So Maros Sefcovic, the energy commissioner, has two adversaries.
One is Russia, which is trying to keep its chokehold on gas supplies to eastern Europe. The other is EU national governments and their state-owned companies. They like the clout of national energy markets and dislike the way that cross-border trade in gas and electricity erodes it.
On Russia, the EU has made progress. It has avoided, so far, any cuts in gas supplies this winter. Despite more Russian bluster this week, Mr Sefcovic is baby-sitting an agreement on bills and debts that the EU helped to broker between Ukraine and Russia. It has pushed his native Slovakia to send gas eastward to Ukraine, reversing the usual flow. The EU is pressing Ukraine to reform its energy business, in particular to put gas meters on the border with Russia rather than rely on measurements taken at pumping stations inside the country. Many see a lack of meters as a prime source of corruption.
The EU has also faced down the Kremlin over South Stream, a highly political planned gas pipeline under the Black Sea and across the Balkans. The commission ruled that South Stream as originally proposed was illegal: the same company is not allowed both to run the pipeline and to own the gas it pumps. Russia urged those countries in which it has some sway, such as Austria, Bulgaria and Croatia, to defy the commission, but in vain. So Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, abruptly cancelled the project in December.
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