One voice
vital for EU on energy resources, says Solana
DAVID BRUNNSTROM AND JEFF MASON IN BRUSSELS
AN UNPRINCIPLED global scramble for energy resources may replace
battles for territory and Europe must forge a united policy or face
being left behind by rivals, the EU's foreign policy chief warned
yesterday.
Javier Solana also warned that competition for energy could well
limit the European Union's ability to push foreign policy
objectives such as conflict resolution and human rights.
"The scramble for territory of the past may be replaced today by
the scramble for energy," he told a conference in Brussels on
energy supply security.
Mr Solana said most of the major issues before the UN Security
Council had an important energy dimension, yet too often EU states
ended up divided on energy policy or defending a position that was
the lowest common denominator.
"However we choose to deal with such regimes, others will put the
energy needs above anything else. The scramble for energy risks
being pretty unprincipled," he said.
"That has to change," he said. "Let us be clear: if we are not able
to launch a unified and substantive position to these issues,
partners will run rings around us. It has already come pretty close
to that on some occasions."
The EU gets 50 per cent of its energy from third countries and that
dependency is projected to grow to 70 per cent by 2020.
It was rattled by a brief cut in supplies of Russian gas last
January, and Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission
President, told the conference that power cuts in Europe this month
"laid bare for all to see" the bloc's vulnerability.
"It is in all our interest that we maximise co-ordination in the
external area and speak with one voice," he added.
However, how far major powers such as Germany, Britain and Italy
are prepared to cede power to Brussels to negotiate with energy
suppliers, remains to be seen.