As fully expected, the EU is looking at options to restore Russian natural gas flowing into Europe (and even presumably via Ukraine), discussions which have of late taken on more urgency given Ukraine’s front lines are collapsing and a deal to end the war is looking inevitable, but whether something takes shape sooner or later remains the big question.
EU officials are mulling resumption of purchases of Russian pipeline gas which could be part of any potential settlement to the war, Financial Times has reported, citing unnamed sources. The outlet stated that advocates of such a ‘controversial’ plan, which includes Hungarian and German leaders, state that this could be an underlying incentive to maintain peace – the stability of Europe’s energy market.
“There is pressure from some big member states on energy prices and this is one way to bring those down, of course,” one official told the FT. And separately a senior EU official acknowledged that “In the end, everybody wants lower energy costs.”
But the mere suggestion of any such future large-scale return to natural gas in the EU is sure to trigger immense political backlash, which is more convenient for those currently benefiting from the current war time blockage in gas transfers and sanctions.
Pushback on the political front is going to be strong, and the argument will be made of ‘appeasing Russia’ and ‘abandoning Ukraine’ – and of allowing more revenue for Moscow’s war machine. Per the FT:
Floating the resumption of pipeline sales from Russia has infuriated Brussels officials and diplomats from some eastern European countries, many of whom have spent the past three years working to reduce the amount of Russian energy being imported into the bloc. “It’s madness,” said one of the officials. “How stupid could we be to even think about that as an option?”
