Poland calls for stronger EU energy union

• 10 years ago (2014-04-02)
• Junior Isles

Europe 1061

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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has floated the idea of a new EU treaty, saying that the EU should cover up to 75 per cent of the cost of creating a more efficient, integrated gas network, including gas infrastructure, pipelines and interconnectors between member states.

The crisis in Ukraine, and concurrent energy woes, have prompted Prime Minister Tusk to lay out his plan for a EU based on a diversification of energy into shale gas and coal and a stronger energy interdependence.

“Taking into account the danger of potential gas crises, we should construct more effective mechanisms for ‘gas solidarity’ in the event of a crisis in gas deliveries,” Tusk said, according to Polish media.

Russia has recently hit Ukraine with gas prices over 40 per cent higher than the discounted rates Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed with former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich after he refused to sign the EU Association Agreement.

Ukraine will now have to pay $385.5 (€279) per 1000 cubic metres of gas in the second quarter, an increase from the $268.5 (€195) agreed in December.

The idea of a new EU treaty to ground a common energy policy is not a wholly new idea and had been advocated by former European Commission President Jacques Delors and the Polish former European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek in 2010.

EU leaders last month tasked the European Commission to come up with a credible plan for decreasing energy dependence from Russia, and the EU executive is now expected to present this proposal before the EU summit in June.