Putin’s power game has led to gas shortages across the EU.
The situation in the union is being labeled as a recession. As the number of households facing energy poverty has doubled across the EU, according to financial services provider Allianz.
A 200 percent rise is expected in retail prices after the gas shortages. The bloc’s powerhouse, Germany, says, that they’re experiencing “severe strain” and in the UK energy bills have gone up to 80%.
As part of his game plan, Vladimir Putin is now weaponizing energy to try to intimidate the west with the intention to claim the balance of power in Europe in Russia’s favor.
On Wednesday he said: “We will not supply anything at all if it is contrary to our interests. No gas, no oil, no coal, no fuel oil, nothing.”
Also, crushing the EU seemed like a piece of cake for the kremlin because for certain reasons.
The bloc relies on Russia for 40% of its gas needs and a third of its oil even before Russia waged war against Ukraine. Countries like Germany and Italy are even more dependent on Russia for oil and gas.
The bloc is shaken due to the constant on and off of gas supplies for months now, the pictures seem to be fogged up as the winter months are around the corner. This puts the countries which were less dependent on Russia, such as France, Spain, and the even UK being directly hit by the hike in prices globally.
How are different countries reacting to this Energy Union?
As the bloc did at the start of the pandemic, it is now trying to find its own national and unique solutions.
Prague witnessed mass demonstrations last weekend, with angry citizens protesting against the soaring cost of living and this led to the demand to pull back all the sanctions against Russia.
Spain has come up with a policy to crunch on air conditioning in public buildings, on the other hand, Germany reduced the cost of public transportation in order to promote its usage. Italy relying on science suggested its people cook pasta with the heat off to save energy and cost.
By not seeing this problem and crisis limited to only the EU bloc, it is trying to include the UK as well. As it has been learned from the post covid experience that being part of a single market, when economies of member states suffer, it pulls everyone down.
French President Emmanuel Macron said they’d love the UK to be a part of a plan.
Countries like Italy and Germany are busy trying alternative energy suppliers- in Algeria and the UAE.
“We have to achieve that we only pay the world market price, rather than a higher price,” said Mr. Scholz on Wednesday. His Belgian counterpart, Alexander De Croo, pointed out that gas prices in Europe are currently double those in Asia and 10 times as much as in the US.
It has been seen that the EU has a sincere desire to not pour money into Russia’s war chest by fetching its own energy needs, but the circumstances tend to weaken it.
In fact, it is true that many countries have drastically reduced their dependence on Russia by now. But a trend shows that how EU continues to pay almost the same daily amount of money, although what they get in return is still a small fraction.
“Putin has to be roaring with laughter at us,” said an EU diplomat.
EU energy ministers have been summoned to an emergency meeting in Brussels on Friday to discuss a raft of proposals to combat the crisis jointly.
But this step is even going in vain as EU leaders are far from united in their priorities.
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