Looking west, ignoring the east

Poland has submitted a draft treaty on energy security to NATO and the EU. Under the plan, the two international bodies would help members when they face an energy-security threat with all assistance, except for armed intervention. Poland hopes that an initial agreement could be reached at an EU summit in Brussels this month.

Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said that natural-gas supplies had become a "tool for political pressure."

Although Poland has been anxious to diversify its energy sources, it has come under fire from Ukraine for failing to work on a proposed oil pipeline between the two countries.

The Odessa-Brody-Gdańsk pipeline would transfer oil from the Caspian Sea to Poland and Western Europe. "There is a lack of concrete action on the part of Poland," said the Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov. Polish President Lech Kaczyński was in Ukraine last week, and energy dominated discussions.

If Poland does not agree to build the pipeline, Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko said Ukraine may send 1.5 million tonnes of oil to a refinery in Belarus and the rest to the Czech Republic, or build a refinery in Brody. (Reuters)