... long-existed under the mutual awareness of interdependence. This perceived paradigm has led to further deepening of the complexity of the relationship through swap deals and favorable transactions, which encompass the entire value-chain of the natural gas sector. The pinnacle of recent collaboration has been the initiation of the Nord Stream-2 project, which has the potential to completely substitute Ukrainian transit routes. On top of that, in 2015 Gazprom has delivered to Germany a record quantity ...
There goes a saying: A chain is as strong as its weakest link. This may very well be the case with the EU vis-à-vis its member state dependency on Russian natural gas. While analyzing the European gas market, too much attention has been focused on the EU-28 average gas consumption index and very little scrutiny was given to individual member states. Analysts were fixated with the EU Commission official stance on ...
Much has been written about Europe’s falling dependency on natural gas and how detrimental this seemed to be for Russia, being the biggest supplier of natural gas to the old continent. Falling demand, falling prices and eventually falling revenues for Russia’s state budget – Russophobes were quick to celebrate ...
... its anti-monopoly laws. The original plan for landfall in the EU (Bulgaria) will now occur in Turkey, while the distribution hub for Europe will be located at the border of Turkey and Greece. Being a strategically important transit point for Russian gas going to Europe and bypassing Ukraine, Turkey tries to increase its bargaining power and engages into price arbitrage with Gazprom: 10.25% discount offered by Gazprom is deemed insufficient and Turkey does not want to receive anything less than15%....
... contracts
and pricing details.
The rational interests of the European Union with regard to Russia boil down to achieving the best possible negotiating position against the background of falling production from other sources that traditionally supply gas to Europe. The European Union could act irrationally and prioritize purchases of more expensive natural gas (as is the case with Lithuania, with plans to
purchase LNG from the United States
) although this is an unlikely scenario given the slow economic growth on the ...
BRUSSELS (Sputnik) – The European Union is trying to maintain the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine for politically motivated reasons, Russian Envoy to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said.
"I think they have the ultimate goal of keeping the Ukrainian transit, which is a purely political stance. It does not have any economic basis," ...
... parliament (158 seats of 250). Vucic himself is known for his individualism and penchant for sharp political actions and statements, supported by the media, – Bonapartesque moves occasionally helpful in times of changes.
Finally, a few words about the gas issue. The scene for Vucic’s visit
was set by President Nicolic’s loud statements
ruling out the option of the Turkish Stream and Vucic’s own call to “
reduce dependency on Russian gas
”. And, although it does look like ...
... meetings of the member countries will be regular. It is notable that Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia were not invited to these talks, although they are also part of the Balkan Peninsula.
It is also noteworthy that these countries want to build a common gas infrastructure, using among other things the financial resources of the European Union.
In the joint declaration
on strengthening cooperation in the energy sphere which was signed at the end of the meeting, the parties “expressed their support for the idea of creating commercially viable routes and sources by supplying ...
... Greece is an integral part of the European Union), but the very fact that such statements can be heard gives us hope that the European Union’s position with regard to Russia could be starting to change.
Despite the lack of high-profile results in ... ... (anti-Turkish sentiment is still strong in Greek political discourse), Mr. Tsipras nevertheless noted that the idea of building a gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey is of great interest to Greece both in terms of satisfying its own natural gas requirements ...
... Partnership or TTIP is a trade agreement proposal currently under negotiation, which aims to create an area of free trade between the European Union and the United States. In June 2013, the EU gave directives to its delegations to handle the talks6, but the progress ... ... without the “independent decisions” of the EU authorities, just to re-quote Ms. Mogherini's intervention.
Gas at All Costs
Another crucial aspect, which the EU is failing to address, concerns its energy policy, considering that no ...
