Unlike 2006
– Paul Taylor is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own –
The gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine that has left hundreds of thousands of Europeans shivering in the winter cold is bound to accelerate plodding European Union efforts to build a common energy policy.
The cut-off of Russian gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine highlighted how little progress the 27-nation EU has made in connecting national energy networks and diversifying supplies since the first such crisis three years ago.
“A similar situation occurred in 2006 and we Europeans now feel guilty about not having done what we said we would do,air jordan femme,” said an EU energy official,air jordan femme, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of his position.
Unlike 2006,air jordan femme, when the Europeans broadly sided with Ukraine’s pro-Western,jordan pas cher, democratic government,jordan, the EU has remained strictly neutral this time in what it regards as mostly a commercial dispute over gas pricing and unpaid bills.
Both sides broke undertakings to Brussels on continuity of supply. The lack of transparency on contracts,air jordan, the role of murky intermediaries and coalition feuding in Kiev all made it harder to sympathise with Ukraine this time,air max pas cher, the EU official said.
“The Russians were having a good gas war until they overreacted by cutting supplies to the EU. As in the war with Georgia last year,chaussures air jordan, they could not resist the urge to teach former Soviet republics a lesson,jordan pas cher,” he said.
The cut-off of Russian gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine highlighted how little progress the 27-nation EU has made in connecting national energy networks and diversifying supplies since the first such crisis three years ago.