Tusk calls for energy union within the EU
22:50
In an article published in the Financial Times, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk is proposing the creation of the energy union after Russia’s activity in the Ukraine. “Regardless of how the stand-off over Ukraine develops, one lesson is clear: excessive dependence on Russian energy makes Europe weak,” Tusk wrote in the article.
Tusk is arguing that since the EU is already creating a banking union and is jointly buying uranium for its nuclear power plants, common gas-buying policy should be the next step. “I therefore propose an energy union. It will return the European Community to its roots,” he wrote.
Such union should be based on several elements, he said, the first of which would be the creation of a single European body that would buy gas for the whole bloc.
Another would be that if one or more EU countries were threatened with being cut off from gas supplies, the others would help them through “solidarity mechanisms.”
He also adds that the EU should help finance energy projects in the countries which are most dependent on Russian gas. “Today, at least 10 EU member states depend on a single supplier - Gazprom - for more than half of their consumption. Some are wholly dependent on Russia's state-controlled gas giant,” Tusk wrote. EU should also look for gas from other sources, including United States and Australia.
The share of Russian gas rose to around 30 percent from 22 percent in 2010, while Russia's oil imports accounted for around 35 percent of EU use.
