Weird to see Gerhard Schroeder in Brussels in his job as a businessman/lobbyist for the Russian/German gas industry, especially when you’re more accustomed to watching him throwing his weight around here as Germany’s chancellor.

On Wednesday he was in town representing Nord Stream, the Baltic Sea pipeline project which will run between Russia and Germany, cunningly bypassing Poland. The infrastructure is a joint venture led by Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled gas giant, with two German companies.

As one scornful EU official said: "How nice of him to come to Brussels. Isn’t he an employee of Mr Putin these days?"

Continue reading "Shameless Schroeder"

On the face of it, the European Commission had some shocking news for shareholders of Eon and RWE in Germany, OMV in Austria and similar listed energy groups across the region. The Brussels regulator on Wednesday vowed to break up all energy suppliers that are also active in managing networks such as grids and pipelines. It argued that the combination of the two businesses stifled competition.

Given the Commission’s sweeping powers to initiate legislation, scrutinise mergers and pursue antitrust infringements, such a step is certainly not beyond Brussels’ reach. That would mean forcing some of Europe’s biggest groups not only to sell off priceless assets but also to face much sharper competition from smaller rivals.

And yet, this shocking news somehow failed to strike fear in the hearts of investors. RWE’s shares actually gained slightly, while Eon and OMV posted only minuscule falls that mirrored the broader market. What’s up? Don’t traders read the newspaper?

Continue reading "Why Eon and its friends have little reason to fear Brussels"

It’s almost mid-January in Brussels and there has not been a single frost in the city. People are shedding their winter coats, trees are sprouting leaves; a rose made an appearance in my garden last week. It doesn’t take a climatalogical genius to realise something is going on, and at long last Europe’s policymakers seem to be taking it seriously.

As recently as last May, José Manuel Barroso did not even mention climate change as one of his top priorities; now it is the cornerstone of almost everything the European Commission does, and is at the heart of Wednesday’s announcement of a new EU energy policy.

Continue reading "Energy policy or hot air?"

In its drive to get us all to do our bit to combat climate change, the European Commission has adopted a pithy slogan: "Turn down. Switch off. Recycle. Walk." It seems, however, that Europe’s functionaries are reluctant to comply with the second of these four edicts.

Photographs passed to the Financial Times show several of the EU’s most illustrious buildings - including the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers’ Justus Lipsius building - lit up like Christmas trees in the middle of the night. The Committee of the Regions is incandescent.

The pictures, taken at the behest of the European Lamp Companies Federation, have surfaced as Europe’s energy ministers convene in Brussels to vote on the Commission’s action plan for energy efficiency. The draft conclusions declare that "the public sector should play an exemplary role" in fostering energy efficiency.

The action plan - which activists fear may be watered down by ministers - is intended to sketch out how Europe could cut its energy consumption by a fifth by 2020 through switching to greener technologies and adopting such energy efficient habits as, say, turning out the lights.

Barbara Helfferich, the Commission’s environment spokeswoman, says the images should not detract from the overall decline in the electricity used by Commission buildings. A strict eco-management pilot scheme is under way, complete with targets to render the EU’s activities greener. The scheme has, Ms Helfferich adds, "sensitised personnel to switch to more environmentally-friendly behaviour".

Tom Burgis