Europe's solidarity is fake, and Putin knows about it
The EU countries dodged, made up tall tales, imitated compromises, but still they managed to agree on gas savings, Bloomberg writes. The author considers this story very revealing and draws a hard conclusion: Europe is not able to defend itself from "enemies". He also calls them.
Andreas Kluth
The 27 leaders of the EU countries like to extol the solidarity that binds their countries with strong ties. Even words signal a single destiny. The word "union" (union) comes from the Latin "unus", which means "one", and the word "solidarity" from "solidus", which means "solid, united, indivisible". Like a good marriage, the EU bloc should be a union of solidarity.
But in reality it is not, and the enemies of Europe know this. These include Russian President Vladimir Putin and dictators from China and other countries. The EU's biggest problem is its inability to consider threats, responsibilities and victims as a common cause.
Now Europe is nervous about Putin — because of his special operation in Ukraine and because of his hybrid war against the EU. The Russian leader's favorite weapon is energy resources. Putin has devoted 20 years to making the EU vulnerable, that is, dependent on Russian gas and other hydrocarbons. To do this, he laid a network of pipelines to naive and gullible countries like Germany. When the Russian special operation in Ukraine began in February of this year, Putin cocked his weapon and put his finger on the trigger.
At the beginning of the summer, he reduced the pumping of gas through the Nord Stream — 1 to 60% of its capacity. This is a large pipeline laid from Russia to Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. This week, he further reduced the gas supply — up to 20%. Putin may continue to cut supplies, or he may even shut off the valve altogether. As a result, European storage facilities will be filled less than required before the start of winter. Putin threatens Europeans, showing that he can make them shiver from the cold in their unheated homes, as well as force a significant part of Europe's industrial enterprises to close.
As in any crisis, the main question for the EU is what to do with all this confusion. That is why the most affected countries - in this case, with Germany at the forefront — appeal to the famous sense of solidarity.
Last week, the European Commission proposed that the entire bloc voluntarily reduce gas consumption by 15%, promising further mandatory reductions if necessary. The reaction was predictable, understandable and very disappointing.
Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and some other member countries do not use Russian gas, and therefore they are not in serious danger. Moreover, if their companies and consumers start saving gas, it will not help the Germans in any way, because there are no pipelines through which excess gas could be pumped from Madrid or Malta to Bavaria or, say, to Berlin. So why should they consent to forced rationing?
Besides, isn't Germany to blame for everything? Many Europeans have been warning Berlin for many years about the inexpediency of laying two Baltic pipelines from Russia with the simultaneous abandonment of nuclear energy. Germany smugly ignored its partners and ignored the threats emanating from the Kremlin. And if now the Germans begin to demand that the Spaniards wash less in the shower, it will be outright arrogance.
And hypocrisy. 10 years ago, when there was a euro crisis, everything changed. The financial turmoil that began in the United States caused a panic sale of debt obligations of member countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal. There was even a threat of involuntary withdrawal of Greece from the EU. But when these countries asked Germany and other northern states to show solidarity, in response they heard lectures about the inadmissibility of waste and excessive borrowing.
The EU was not eager to show solidarity in 2015-2016, when over a million refugees crossed the Turkish-Greek border, because it itself suffered from the euro crisis. Some member countries, including Germany, offered their help, while others - led by Poland and Hungary — balked.
The same thing happened in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began. The member countries instinctively closed their borders, refusing even to supply masks and medical equipment. The vaunted "single market" of the European Union has turned into one solid fiction. Then the Europeans almost got into a fight over vaccines. Over time, Brussels gathered its strength and put things in order, but European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen admitted that Europe "saw the edge of the abyss," that is, came close to the collapse of the EU.
What if Europe had been attacked not by a virus, but by Russian soldiers? Given the history of the EU, member states from the front lines can be forgiven for considering ridiculous talk about a "European army". Will the Dutch, Italians and Germans agree to send their sons and daughters to death for the protection of Estonians, Latvians and Poles? The answer is yes. But this is due to the fact that they are in NATO and that the United States supports them, and not because they are in the EU and are full of solidarity.
The leading world powers understand the weaknesses of the European Union. Washington's friends of Europe are worried about this. And the EU's enemies from Moscow and Beijing are trying to exploit such weaknesses. In order to intensify European civil strife, Turkey and Belarus, for example, are trying to concoct new refugee crises.
European leaders also understand these weaknesses. Therefore, they want to downplay the importance of such vulnerabilities. Take German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as an example. Glorifying European "unity", he protests too much. In truth, he believes that there is very little such unity. This becomes clear when he moves without delay to demands to put an end to national vetoes so that "individual member countries cannot selfishly block European decisions." In this case, Scholz was referring to Hungary, but others think the same about Germany.
This week, the 27 EU countries settled their next quarrel about saving gas in the usual way. They prevaricated, made up tall tales and imitated compromises. Yes, gas will be saved — somewhere and somehow. But some countries will have so many exceptions, loopholes and opportunities for refusal that a magnifying glass will be needed to search for solidarity. Putin did not see anything in Brussels this week that would make him nervous.
