Ample media attention is given these days to the envisaged gas deal between Poland and Russia's state-owned gas giant Gazprom, and its pending approval by authorities in Brussels. At a meeting with President Komorowski on September 1, the European Commission's President, Jose Manuel Barroso, confirmed that the Commission was backing the deal, claiming it would help improve bilateral cooperation with Russia. Whatever that really means.
The Commission seems, or seemed, to be worried about the impact of the deal on competition within Europe's single gas market, as the agreement imposes fixed conditions over a period of a quarter century.
At the same time, another dispute is ongoing that is receiving considerably less attention in the Polish press. The German government, no doubt under pressure from interest groups connected to the controversial Nord Stream gas pipeline project, objects to the construction of a brand new LNG terminal at Świnoujście, on the shores of the Baltic just north of Szczecin.
The terminal will bring substantial investment outlays and high-quality employment to a region afflicted by major layoffs in the ailing shipbuilding sector. For these reasons, this important initiative was granted EU funding and it is this funding that Germany is now vehemently trying to block. Germany claims that the terminal poses an environmental threat and that it is not in line with the famous, or infamous, Natura 2000 Directive which intends to protect bird habitats.
First of all, exactly how Germany plans to block the funding is questionable. EU funds are allocated according to a very elaborate procedure and at this stage of the process, member states have very little to say. This is something the Commission has already confirmed.
The German government will now presumably try to pressure the EC at the highest political level, but would they really do that just to protect a few birds?
It is obvious that there is something more to this than environmental protection. Something smells here ... The Świnoujście terminal poses a threat to unspoken German-Russian ambitions to dominate the energy supply infrastructure in the north-eastern part of Europe.
The judgment of the Polish government in this respect is, in my view, correct, and its concerns are legitimate. But it is not enough for the responsible minister to simply publicize the issue. The prime minister and president need to come out and unambiguously defend the Polish cause – and with the same determination with which Mr Komorowski has defended the Gazprom deal.
Poland must go full steam ahead with the construction of the terminal. And it must insist on the fact that EU funding for it is justified. Not only because this is a sustainable investment in an environmentally friendly energy source. But also, and perhaps more importantly, because the development of the terminal implements the EU's objectives to diversify energy supply and reduce Europe's, and particularly Central and Eastern Europe's reliance on dominant and in many cases capricious suppliers such as Russia.
