Europe’s Hypocritical Gas Policy Isn’t Sustainable

Europe’s Hypocritical Gas Policy Isn’t Sustainable

International and Arab News

Europeans enduring an unseasonal April cold snap may be forgiven for thinking winter is back. But for the natural gas market, summer has arrived. April 1 marked the start of a new year in the energy calendar, moving the focus to injecting enough gas into storage during the coming low-demand months in preparation for next winter. It’s a race Europe cannot afford to lose, but one it will struggle to win following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

For the 2022-23 winter, the European Union has set itself a target of filling its underground gas storage to 80% of capacity by October. That may be possible, but only at a huge political – and moral – cost: The EU will have to continue buying as much Russian gas as it does now, paying Vladimir Putin about $200 million per day, or about $36 billion for the next six months.

Doing so would cement the hypocrisy at the center of current European energy policy and diplomacy. While EU politicians vow to punish the Kremlin for Russian war crimes in Ukraine, they refuse to impose a gas embargo that would hurt Putin financially.

For the first time, Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, spoke