After the North Stream natural gas pipeline was bombed, the situation in Europe changed drastically. We agreed to find a way to spend the winter together. As soon as we came to an end, both of the three giants of EU betrayed the "revolution", and the whole of Europe broke the defense.
The first move was Germany, where the back path was broken. After the Nord Stream pipeline was bombed, the German Chancellor Scholz , who was still in quarantine for new crown , could no longer sit still. He quickly announced the authorization to restart the economic stability fund during the epidemic, and borrowed 200 billion yuan from the market to stabilize the price of natural gas , and avoid the potential upcoming corporate bankruptcy or outflow trends in Germany as much as possible.
Italy is more direct. According to Xinhua News Agency , Gazprom has announced that natural gas supply to Italy via Austria has been restored. After the right-wing alliance led by new Prime Minister Meloni came to power, the first fire caught the EU off guard.
However, Germany and Italy are in very different situations. On the Italian side, it is not clear what agreement has reached between Russia and Italy, but EU politicians are not good at saying anything. After all, the EU has previously imposed sanctions and has not included Russian gas in it. However, Germany's behavior attracted a lot of curses.
The loudest among the scolding is Hungarian Prime Minister Orban. Orban directly criticized Scholz's behavior as "cannibal behavior" . This time, even the Western European countries that have always supported Germany jumped out to oppose it. Belgian Prime Minister De Cro criticized Germany's move to "degrade the EU's single market." France's Minister of Economy and Finance warned that Germany's actions would increase the risk of the eurozone's disintegration.
Scholtz's behavior of borrowing money to stabilize natural gas prices has attracted collective condemnation from EU politicians, largely because there is only so much natural gas in the market, and production capacity is difficult to increase in the short term. Germany spent 200 billion euros to grab goods, so it will be difficult for other countries to grab goods.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 Wish Germany to share its own points? Scholz's behavior this time was clearly about leaving the little brothers alone. It is reported that before Scholz announced his 200 billion rescue plan, not only did the European Commission not get any news, but even France was kept in the dark. What’s more important is that once Germany starts to “stay alone”, the situation of other EU countries will be in a bad state. " Financial Times " has done a calculation. 200 billion euros are equivalent to 5.6% of Germany's economy last year, and the Scholz government has previously allocated 100 billion euros to deal with the energy crisis . This means that Germany will use up to 8.4% of GDP for energy subsidies.
300 billion euros, twice the total energy subsidy of the two European giants, Italy and France. Even if not calculated in absolute terms and only in GDP percentage, Germany mobilizes three times the resources that other euro zone countries are. If EU countries really want to start a war of breathing in winter, Germany has left other countries far behind. In addition, Germany, as the largest contributor to EU funds, has invested resources in the country in a large scale. It remains to be seen whether it will affect EU funds in the future.
In order to stabilize the price of natural gas, Scholz has already made a fortune this time. Not only does Germany no longer mention the so-called natural gas price limit, it even cancels the natural gas surcharge tax that was originally scheduled to be imposed in October. In addition, Germany's natural gas sales tax has also been significantly reduced from 19% to 7%.
Whether it is Germany's "spreading money" or Italy's recovery of Russian gas, it is all about ensuring the country's supply of gas in winter. The two countries' attempt to leave the EU alone is clear.
Another giant in the EU, France, has also shown a certain tendency to protect itself. Just this week, the French government announced its national energy conservation plan. Paris’s goal is that France will ensure a 10% reduction in energy consumption in the next two years. In terms of specific measures, France "humally" learned from neighboring countries, requiring residents to not exceed 19 degrees in winter, and the air conditioner should not be adjusted to below 26 degrees in summer.Whether France is pretending to behave or the situation is really not optimistic, at least the meaning it shows is very clear: life is not easy, don’t expect France to help.
The cold winter is approaching Europe. Although the EU has just passed the eighth round of sanctions against Russia. But if the sanctions are useful, why should we delay until the eighth round? Italy has begun to "connect with Russia", and Germany's operation is equivalent to giving EU countries a fierce back stab. The EU's united front against Russia is on the verge of collapse, and the internal strife may soon begin.
