Gas våben
Politiken
October 26 2009

The EU must develop greater solidarity from the point of view of the energy policies. This is firmly stated in the editorial published following Denmark’s acceptance of that part of the trajectory of the North Stream gas pipeline between Russia and Germany which will cross Danish territorial waters. In the editorial it is stressed how even Denmark must be more committed in this sense, seeing the questions raised by the North Stream decision. Hitherto – it is pointed out – it has not been possible to know from the competent institutions whether that decision can be taken, as has been done, without consulting the Parliament. One wonders whether the environmental impact assessment has been enough, whether the aspects related to the safety policies have been considered. It was the competent department for energy policies that decided to give Danish assent on the grounds of an environmental assessment. But the North Stream problem is not only of an environmental and technical nature, stresses the editorialist. It is an important matter for both for politics and for safety policies. On the subject of foreign policy the main question is still whether Denmark has taken into consideration or not the concerns of the countries involved. These are above all the Baltic States, the Ukraine and Byelorussia, which have hitherto traditionally been countries of transit for Russian gas on its journey towards Western Europe. We do not even know whether Denmark has had consultations with those countries over the possible consequence that might accrue from the construction of a gas pipeline that eliminates them as transit countries. Instead we do know that such countries fear that Russia may interrupt the gas flow more frequently, seeing that in future that action will not have consequences for the Western countries, unlike it did when Russia interrupted the gas supplies at the beginning of 2009 following a clash with the Ukraine over gas prices. The Swedish Defence Minister – the editorialist reminds us - has commissioned a survey that has shown that there have already been 55 disruptions to Russian gas supplies to the Eastern countries since the fall of the Wall up to now. Of course, the cooperation with Russia will have to continue – the journalist points out - but we must always remember that energy resources represent a political weapon for Moscow. And for this reason “it is urgent that the EU should immediately embark on the road to solidarity”: indeed, the Baltic States are not yet integrated in the European energy network and they risk total isolation from the energy point of view when the North Stream gas pipeline opens in 2012. Vladimir Putin thus continues to be able to divided the European countries when there is talk of energy matters, but now the long series of Russian successes in this field – the editorialist stresses in the end – must be stopped.