Gas – The Night of the Prom

 

No Energy for War

 

 

The Russians are feeling cool. The Ukrainians are feeling involved. The Europeans, at least most of them, are feeling deprived and cold. Most European countries depend on different sources for their supply of gas. Take Italy for example. It depends on Algeria, Russia, Libya, The Netherlands and Norway in that order. Gas is crucial in the winter months because it is needed to fuel the central heating systems with which most European homes are supplied. 

Vladimir Putin’s Russia and its huge gas supplier Gazprom has decided to play cool at this freezing time of the year by cutting off the gas supplies to Europe. The problem is that the reason for this sudden freeze of supplies is a dispute with neighbouring Ukraine and has nothing to do with  Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Serbia, and Austria – all countries who are feeling the bite but have no responsibility for Russia’s current grudge with the Westward looking Ukrainians. 

Italy’s Enel reports that thanks to diverse contracts with other suppliers it has enough gas to supply homes until the 26th January. After that who knows? The situation is worse in the Balkans and former communist states which are more directly hit. The current wave of biting cold in the middle of Europe is not helping matters in any way. The EU is caught on the wrong leg once again since it has no common programme for gas supply or common gas market. After the Israeli question, the EU once again finds itself in a dire need of a much more reactive foreign policy – it is useless for individual nations to continue to flounder alone when the problems of today’s world afflict the community as a whole and when it is evident that a common reaction can be much more beneficial.

With an outside temperature of minus five and an inside personal temperature around the fahrenheit hundreds this is your reporter from centrally heated Belair, Luxembourg saying that it is over and out for now.

More:

The BBC on the disruption in Europe.

La Stampa on the Moscow closure of service.

The International Herald Tribune on the point of view from Ukraine.

Slovakia joins the Euro

… Czech Republic assumes EU Presidency

Slovakia has become the 16th member of the Eurozone. Prime Minister Fico withdrew 100 euros from a cash machine in the Parliament building on the stroke of midnight. Unlike Prime Minister Gonzi in Malta last year, Fico’s withdrawal occurred without any embarassing hitches. Slovakia follows Slovenia as the second former communist country to join the Eurozone. As Slovakia was joining the euro, the neighbouring Czech republic took over the rotating presidency of the European Union. Notably, Czech president Vaclav Klaus had dismissed this event as being “unimportant” and this had raised mixed feelings among EU circles regarding the Czech presidency dring what is considered to be such a crucial moment of EU development.

Globeblogging

In Luxembourg the government has announced that nationals of eight of the Eastern Countries who joined the EU can now work in the country without the need of any special permit. This notice intends to exclude Bulgaria and Romania but funnily enough whenever Luxembourg seems to talk about THE new members they include 8 of the 2004 entry and the 2 latest members. Malta and Cyprus are nowhere to be seen.

In  Brussels the European justice and interior ministers prepare to extend Schengen Rights to 8 former Communist countries and Malta. The new area extends the spread of the passport free zone to the borders of Ukraine and Belarus.

In the world the price of oil continues to surge towards the symbolic $100 per barrel price. In Europe, the rise of the Euro has acted as a hedge against fluctuations in the dollar denominated oil market (source IHT).  World power balance now depends more than ever on access to Oil. Surely more muscle for Chavez and Putin… a little less for Bush and the Chinese giant.

In Italy, Tariceanu and Prodi met to discuss the Roma problem. The respective premiers of Romania and Italy were to discuss the problems being created by the wave of Romanians moving to the other areas of the EU – in this case Italy. Roma(no) Prodi assures Tariceanu that there will be no mass expulsions. The former Commission Meister is still strongly in favour of the free movement of citizens in an open Europe but believes that something has to be done to quell the tide of hatred after an Italian citizen was brutally murdered in a Rome suburb.

At Anfield, Liverpool defeated Besiktas 8-0 in a one-way Champions League encounter. This created a new record for the widest scoreline shattering the one held jointly by Juventus (vs Olympiakos 7-0, 10/12/93) and Arsenal (vs Sparta Praga 7-0, 23/10/07). The seven goals of Manchester against Roma do not count in this particular record since at the time the giallozozzi managed to get one goal back.

On the internet, this article by Pat Buchanan announcing the demise of the dollar is the most “Dug” article at the time of this post being posted. My last sentence is an example of what internet grammar can do to the English language.

Eppur’ si Muove

The no to the constitution, the changing of leaders in different states, the referendum conundrum, the harsh criticism of a Reform Treaty that could be passed without the will of the people … all this and more went into the process that led to yesterday’s approval of the Reform Treaty in Lisbon. Europe’s leaders have once again, and contrary to many expectations, decided to move on. Until Thursday one would not have expected such a rapid conclusion. Especially with Prodi and Co. striring up quite a ruckus because of the new allocation of seats in Parliament. Instead come Friday night Jose Socrates was speaking of a European project on the move that can look forward in confidence.

How much of this enthusiasm is the result of relief at having achieved a Treaty of some kind is still to be seen. One does have to remember after all that the signatures that went on the Lisbon Treaty were meant to be appended to a much grander project with very ambitious goals and mind-blowing connotations. The good news really is probably not as extensively grand as might be perceived from the various leaders’ statements but one thing remains clear…

…despite all obstacles and difficulties, Europe still moves on.

Infringement Proceedings

The College of Commissioners met yesterday in Brussels to discuss what new infringement proceedings to start against Member States (MS) who for one reason or another have failed to comply with Community Law or failed to implement/transpose certain parts of EC law. This kind of meeting falls within the ambit of the Commission’s role as guardian of the treaties – in this case it is monitoring the MS in order to ensure that they fulfill their obligations as outlined in the Treaty.

This work is fundamental to the working of the EU system as a whole since it helps ensure that the corpus of EU law (including packages of rights and obligations that affect citizens, consumers, vendors, states, state entities) is uniformly and universally applicable within the EU. When the Commission begins infringement proceedings against a State this is usually because the Commission strongly believes that such State is not fulfilling its obligations in a particular field.

The College yesterday decided to initiate 550 infringement proceedings against 27 member states. On average this should yield around 20 cases per member state. Malta has got seven proceedings initiated against it. A number that is positively surprising. The issues vary from Air Pollution to not getting up to date with adapting various laws to reflect the accession of Bulgaria and Romania. The number is low and what is more, at first glance, one could say that most of the issues are “non-controversial” in that Malta’s default lies in a bureaucratic failure to implement in time rather than a fundamental or principled disagreement with the content of the law that should have been applied.

One infringement stands out for interesting analysis. The Commission has berated Malta (and several other Member States) for continuing to reserve the profession of the Notary to nationals and not allowing nationals of other member states to take up such profession. Without wanting to enter too deeply in the merits of the issue (particularly since our cabinet at the ECJ might be involved in one of these cases later on) I think it is safe to say that there will be an interesting discussion on the nature of the profession – such as it is seen in countries like Malta and Italy and the “public servant” facet of the Notary that might allow such states to argue in favour of a public interest exception.

Pleasures yet to come as a certain professor at University was wont to repeat ad nauseam!