Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-01-14-Speech-3-400"
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"en.20090114.17.3-400"2
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"In my opinion, there are two aspects to the problem of gas supply from Russia to Ukraine and then on to the EU. The first is that many people are up in arms hollering ‘How dare Russia do this!’ I ask: Why should not it? If the EU itself is primarily a neo-liberal project where the market supposedly resolves everything, why should not Russia be allowed to behave commercially and demand payment of the money owed to it by the debtor? The gas crisis was not triggered by Russia but by Ukraine, and it is not a political problem, but an economic issue. This needs to be made quite clear! The second aspect is the focus (which I have criticised several times in the past) of EU bodies and institutions – and Parliament is no exception – on problems that are irrelevant and only divert attention away from the really urgent issues. This was reaffirmed by the reaction to Russia’s legitimate decision to suspend gas supplies. Rather than the embarrassing pampering accorded to the Ukrainian administration as a sort of ‘protective filter’ between Russia and EU countries and rather than dreaming up the perfect shape for a cucumber, the EU should have been preparing for a crisis of this kind long ago. How has the EU helped the Slovaks and Bulgarians, for example, who have been hit hardest by the gas crisis? Was it able to help them at all? If not, there is something wrong with integration."@en1
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