Editorial To Vima: The winter of our energy discontent

All assessments and projections indicate that Europe will experience a tough winter in terms of energy sufficiency and the exorbitant price of natural gas, which in turn will trigger an inflationary chain and the vicious circle of stagflation that usually accompanies it.

Analysts say that the energy crisis is inordinately greater than the one that broke out in 1973, when the OPEC oil cartel decided to impose an embargo that had a major impact on international oil prices.

Everyone is aware of the long-term repercussions of that crisis and can imagine those of the current one.

This is all the more true due to the fact that the war in Ukraine is still dragging on after five months of conflict and there is no end in sight, not even the prospect of a truce or cease-fire.

Needless to say, Russia is gaining more from the energy crisis than it is spending on the war, and now Vladimir Putin believes he can play the multi-polar world card, posing as the representative of the downtrodden of the world.

He is attempting to bolster his relations with Beijing, Tehran, Ankara, Jakarta, and Bolsonaro’s Brazil.

The common conviction is that Europe will face multiple trials this coming winter.

European societies are literally at risk of freezing in a few months’ time and of confronting existential impasses.

European leaders are gradually realising this, but that cognisance has not been demonstrated through a united stance and policy.

Consultations are taking place behind the scenes, but as usual the EU is slow in acting and shifting course, as the national interests of member-states are intractable and hinder the quest for the sort of EU-wide solution that conditions mandate.

Here, one sees once again the intransigence of Germany, which, just as in the pandemic crisis, is foot-dragging in order to avoid an exceedingly large cost.

Nevertheless, as things are going only an inter-connected and strong EU-wide package of arrangements, choices, and funding can offer a credible solution and create the preconditions for checking the imminent and unprecedented energy crisis.

At the same time, a united Europe should step up peacemaking efforts.

It must do more to achieve peace, transcending the maximalism of the beleaguered Ukrainians and the ideological fixations of the Americans, who are thousands of miles away from the centre of the conflict and obviously are reaping economic benefits from the war.

Greece has many reasons to fervently pursue an EU-wide solution to the energy crisis and the war that is bedevilling the European continent.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis took a clear stand in a timely manner, proposing joint energy procurement, a price ceiling, and a funding programme along the lines of the Pandemic Recovery Fund, so as to achieve the swiftest possible end of EU reliance upon Russian energy sources and a sweeping restructuring of the energy model, in the face of the burgeoning repercussions of climate change.

It would be useful for Greece’s main political parties to coordinate in this direction and demand a workable EU-wide solution.

Everyone can plainly see that there are no magic solutions at the national level to confront the major challenges of our times.

Through this crisis, the EU has an opportunity to advance policies aiming at closer unification, and Greece has every reason to support them.