Summer break is over in Europe: In Brussels, EU institutions are resuming work this week, and important events are coming up in other European capitals as well.
Today, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will give a keynote speech on European policy in Prague. He will speak about the significance that the “turning point in time” resulting from the Russian war of aggression holds for Europe for an hour in the Karolinum, the historic main building of Charles University. He will then meet Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, whose government has held the EU Council presidency since July 1.
Tomorrow and Wednesday, the EU foreign ministers will also travel to Prague for the bi-annual informal Gymnich meeting. An emotionally charged debate is emerging, as Eric Bonse reports in his Feature: Member states are divided over the issue of a visa ban on Russian citizens. A compromise could be the suspension of the visa agreement with Russia.
Also tomorrow, the German government will host Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for a closed meeting at Schloss Meseberg. The main topic is likely to be energy supply: Sánchez and Scholz support the plan to build the MidCat gas pipeline, which will connect Spain and Portugal to Central Europe. France, however, has so far opposed the project.
In Bulgaria, the transitional government established at the beginning of August wants to resume negotiations with Russia on gas supplies. In his Feature, Hans-Peter Siebenhaar explains how the country could move closer to Russia again after the parliamentary elections scheduled to take place in early October at the latest.
Have a great week!
The summer break of the EU foreign ministers ends as it began: with a tug-of-war over Ukraine policy. The ongoing dispute over arms deliveries and sanctions has now been joined by a conflict over entry restrictions for Russian citizens. The emotionally charged debate is likely to dominate the informal Gymnich meeting in Prague on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Estonia, Latvia and Finland have already gone ahead – they have announced or already implemented entry bans. “Visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right,” says Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas. Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin calls it “unfair” that Russians can go on vacation in Europe “while Russia kills people in Ukraine”.
In contrast, Germany, Austria, Greece, and Cyprus are putting on the brakes. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) warns against holding Russians collectively liable. The war in Ukraine is first and foremost “Putin’s war”, Scholz said. A general visa ban would also affect “completely innocent people” and not just war supporters. Moreover, such a ban would raise legal problems.
Austria is concerned about contacts with Russian civil society, which would be made more difficult by an entry ban. In Greece and Cyprus, on the other hand, concerns about economic disadvantages predominate – Russians accounted for around a quarter of tourists in Cyprus before the war. Currently, however, vacationers prefer Turkey, which has not joined the EU sanctions.
Russia has warned against a general visa ban. That would be “Nazi policy”, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said. “We are still observing a clear emergence of a Nazi policy today, when from the highest European tribunes the Russophobic idea of banning all Russian citizens from entering EU countries is being actively promoted.”
According to the speaker of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, a ban would cost the EU at least €21 billion. However, it is unclear what this estimate is based on. In general, there is a lack of reliable data in the debate. For example, it is not even clear how many Russian tourists have traveled to the EU since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
According to the EU border agency Frontex, there were exactly 998,085 Russian citizens from the day of the invasion on February 24 to August 22. However, Frontex does not only count tourists. Moreover, one must distinguish between visas for the Schengen area and national entry permits. Schengen visas are only valid in 22 of the 27 EU countries, and they are also limited to 90 days.
In Germany, applications have so far only been rejected in rare exceptional cases. According to the Foreign Office, there must be weighty reasons for this – forged documents or “a threat to public order, internal security (…) or the international relations of one or more member states”. A blanket rejection has not been provided so far.
A comprehensive entry ban would be disproportionate, according to a recent study by the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Berlin. However, the EU Visa Code offers sufficient starting points to significantly restrict tourist travel. For example, the EU could completely suspend the existing visa facilitation agreement with Russia, says SWP researcher Raphael Bossong.
In addition, a convergent approach could be agreed upon regarding the issuance of individual short-term visas. A narrow interpretation of the travel conditions under EU Regulation 810/2009 could also lead to severe restrictions. For example, it could be argued that Russian tourists do not have access to Heian accounts or international credit cards due to applicable sanctions.
However, this would mean abandoning the main purpose of the sanctions agreed so far – to punish those responsible for the war – and massively expanding the circle of those affected. So far, entry bans have been imposed on 1,200 Russian decision-makers, with Putin leading the way. Does the EU now want to mess with all Russians and postulate collective guilt? This is the delicate core of the debate.
No decision is expected in Prague yet; after all, this is an informal meeting. High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, said it was “not a good idea” to deny Russians entry indiscriminately. It is necessary to be “more selective” and also to think of the 300,000 Russians who have fled Russia, he said at a conference at the University of Santander.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) signaled a willingness to compromise. The Chancellor’s Office and the Foreign Office agree “that we will find a solution together in Europe that brings everyone’s legitimate concerns and issues together,” Baerbock said on Friday. However, “140 million people in Russia should not be abandoned forever” and put in “clan custody”.
Bulgaria is fighting for its political stability. The EU country will elect a new parliament at the beginning of October – for the fourth time since spring 2021. In June 2022, the liberal-social democratic coalition of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov broke apart after only half a year. President Rumen Radev then appointed a transitional government of experts at the beginning of August (Europe.Table reported).
The pro-Western government under Petkov stood firmly with the other member states, which supported far-reaching sanctions against Russia for its attack on Ukraine. It expelled some seventy Russian diplomats from the country. Sofia also refused to comply with Vladimir Putin’s demand that it pay for Russian gas supplies in rubles. Gazprom subsequently cut off Bulgaria’s gas supply in April, making it one of the first EU countries to do so.
This Moscow-critical course is now in question. Traditionally, Russia has had great influence in the country on the Black Sea. Moscow was considered a reliable friend, and Bulgaria also dependended on Gazprom’s supplies. The Russian state-owned company covered more than 90 percent of the country’s gas needs. The long-term contract with Gazprom expires at the end of 2022.
The relationship changed radically with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the meantime, however, pro-Russian forces have gained momentum in Bulgarian society, not least because of the sharp rise in energy and food prices. Observers expect an increase in votes for pro-Russian parties in the parliamentary elections in the fall. Polls currently suggest a neck-and-neck race between Petkov, a Harvard graduate with his party “We Continue the Change”, and his predecessor Boyko Borisov, head of the right-wing conservative GERB party.
The interim government appointed at the beginning of August by Russia-friendly President Radev under former Labor and Social Affairs Minister Galeb Donev is already initiating a departure from the previous course. It is endeavoring to ensure the security of energy and food supplies.
Energy Minister Rossen Hristov recently announced that he would also negotiate with Gazprom on resuming gas supplies to this end. “If necessary, negotiations with Gazprom will be resumed,” he said after a meeting of the Bulgarian task force on the energy crisis. The Russian supplier is an “absolutely valid option”.
Hristov is responding to fears in Bulgarian society about the next winter and is also receiving support from the business community: Bulgarian associations and trade unions are calling for possible gas supplies to be explored with Moscow to avert damage to the domestic industry. The energy minister accuses Petkov’s government of having damaged relations with Russia.
How long Bulgaria’s gas reserves will last is disputed. Currently, the country is also talking with Azerbaijan about additional gas supplies. Bulgaria currently receives around one billion cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan. The annual demand is around three billion cubic meters.
Moscow already announced: From Russia’s point of view, no new contract is needed for the resumption of gas supplies. The Russian ambassador Eleonora Valentinovna Mitrofanova said that the gas would have to be paid for in rubles. Energy Minister Hristov, however, does not expect easy and quick results: “The talks will be very hard and very difficult.”
On the European stage, Sofia faces a loss of face if Bulgaria agrees to this concession to Moscow. The country would drop out of solidarity within the EU. The damage to foreign policy would be a severe test for the new government.
In addition, the country faces a domestic political test. Since the expert government took office, there have been repeated protests. On Wednesday, supporters of the conservative-liberal party Democratic Bulgaria demonstrated in front of President Radev’s official residence against negotiations with Gazprom. The demonstrators fear that Moscow is regaining influence and fueling corruption in Bulgaria through its patronage networks.
2020 was a significant year for Katherina Reiche. Not only did she take up her post as CEO at the Essen-based energy service and infrastructure provider Westenergie. The 25 members of the National Hydrogen Council, newly convened by the German government, also elected her to the top position.
A heavy workload for Reiche (49), but the graduate chemist brings a lot of experience with networks, networking, and leadership. From 1998 to 2015, Reiche worked for the CDU in federal politics, including as Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, then at the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure.
Then in 2015, her seamless move from politics to business, or more precisely to the board of the Association of Municipal Enterprises, was not without controversy, just before the waiting period for politicians was passed. At Westenergie, Reiche is now responsible for a seamlessly functioning electricity, gas, water and broadband network to the furthest corners of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Lower Saxony.
The 174,000 kilometers of the power grid are under particular scrutiny because not only consumers are connected to it, but also solar, wind and biomass plants that feed electricity into it. And it is not only energy networks that Reiche weaves. At the Fempower Academy she founded, Reiche, herself a mother of three, prepares women in the company for management positions and offers them networking opportunities.
Reiche has all kinds of crisis experience in her work: the Covid pandemic, the flood in the Ahr Valley, the Ukraine war and the resulting gas crisis. Add to that the interrupted or restricted supply chains and the tensions between the West and China. All of this makes the urgently needed development and expansion of resilient networks more difficult. After all, to make networks more resilient, they need to be given digital components.
“If, as in the Ahr Valley, the entire infrastructure fails – electricity, water, gas, telecommunications, Internet, cold chains, gas stations, simply everything – then I have to start rebuilding everything at some point,” Reiche explains. “To do this, we install 450-megahertz radio technology, for example, which allows us to transmit machine data quickly and over long distances. For example, we can restart a power plant from the outside.”
In its strategy, the previous German government already stipulated that Germany must become independent of China, explains Reiche. The technology used is now no longer considered solely in terms of price but also in terms of cyber security, espionage and resilience against potential attacks, and where possible, components from Europe are selected.
But to get a picture of the situation in the first place, we need more digital network components, so-called digital local network stations, to monitor the network via control centers. Even better: smart meters in every household to be able to determine precisely where the infrastructure is damaged or has disappeared altogether. Reiche would like to see more speed and consistency from the German government in this area.
However, the government is moving ahead with hydrogen. The National Hydrogen Council, which Reiche chairs, has been working intensively since 2020 on how hydrogen can be procured in sufficient quantities and distributed to the necessary locations. Here, Eon subsidiary Westenergie is testing in several projects how entire cities can be supplied with hydrogen instead of natural gas in a climate-neutral way in the future to reduce dependence on fossil fuels from abroad. Lisa-Martina Klein
Summer break is over in Europe: In Brussels, EU institutions are resuming work this week, and important events are coming up in other European capitals as well.
Today, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will give a keynote speech on European policy in Prague. He will speak about the significance that the “turning point in time” resulting from the Russian war of aggression holds for Europe for an hour in the Karolinum, the historic main building of Charles University. He will then meet Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, whose government has held the EU Council presidency since July 1.
Tomorrow and Wednesday, the EU foreign ministers will also travel to Prague for the bi-annual informal Gymnich meeting. An emotionally charged debate is emerging, as Eric Bonse reports in his Feature: Member states are divided over the issue of a visa ban on Russian citizens. A compromise could be the suspension of the visa agreement with Russia.
Also tomorrow, the German government will host Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for a closed meeting at Schloss Meseberg. The main topic is likely to be energy supply: Sánchez and Scholz support the plan to build the MidCat gas pipeline, which will connect Spain and Portugal to Central Europe. France, however, has so far opposed the project.
In Bulgaria, the transitional government established at the beginning of August wants to resume negotiations with Russia on gas supplies. In his Feature, Hans-Peter Siebenhaar explains how the country could move closer to Russia again after the parliamentary elections scheduled to take place in early October at the latest.
Have a great week!
The summer break of the EU foreign ministers ends as it began: with a tug-of-war over Ukraine policy. The ongoing dispute over arms deliveries and sanctions has now been joined by a conflict over entry restrictions for Russian citizens. The emotionally charged debate is likely to dominate the informal Gymnich meeting in Prague on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Estonia, Latvia and Finland have already gone ahead – they have announced or already implemented entry bans. “Visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right,” says Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas. Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin calls it “unfair” that Russians can go on vacation in Europe “while Russia kills people in Ukraine”.
In contrast, Germany, Austria, Greece, and Cyprus are putting on the brakes. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) warns against holding Russians collectively liable. The war in Ukraine is first and foremost “Putin’s war”, Scholz said. A general visa ban would also affect “completely innocent people” and not just war supporters. Moreover, such a ban would raise legal problems.
Austria is concerned about contacts with Russian civil society, which would be made more difficult by an entry ban. In Greece and Cyprus, on the other hand, concerns about economic disadvantages predominate – Russians accounted for around a quarter of tourists in Cyprus before the war. Currently, however, vacationers prefer Turkey, which has not joined the EU sanctions.
Russia has warned against a general visa ban. That would be “Nazi policy”, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said. “We are still observing a clear emergence of a Nazi policy today, when from the highest European tribunes the Russophobic idea of banning all Russian citizens from entering EU countries is being actively promoted.”
According to the speaker of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, a ban would cost the EU at least €21 billion. However, it is unclear what this estimate is based on. In general, there is a lack of reliable data in the debate. For example, it is not even clear how many Russian tourists have traveled to the EU since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
According to the EU border agency Frontex, there were exactly 998,085 Russian citizens from the day of the invasion on February 24 to August 22. However, Frontex does not only count tourists. Moreover, one must distinguish between visas for the Schengen area and national entry permits. Schengen visas are only valid in 22 of the 27 EU countries, and they are also limited to 90 days.
In Germany, applications have so far only been rejected in rare exceptional cases. According to the Foreign Office, there must be weighty reasons for this – forged documents or “a threat to public order, internal security (…) or the international relations of one or more member states”. A blanket rejection has not been provided so far.
A comprehensive entry ban would be disproportionate, according to a recent study by the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Berlin. However, the EU Visa Code offers sufficient starting points to significantly restrict tourist travel. For example, the EU could completely suspend the existing visa facilitation agreement with Russia, says SWP researcher Raphael Bossong.
In addition, a convergent approach could be agreed upon regarding the issuance of individual short-term visas. A narrow interpretation of the travel conditions under EU Regulation 810/2009 could also lead to severe restrictions. For example, it could be argued that Russian tourists do not have access to Heian accounts or international credit cards due to applicable sanctions.
However, this would mean abandoning the main purpose of the sanctions agreed so far – to punish those responsible for the war – and massively expanding the circle of those affected. So far, entry bans have been imposed on 1,200 Russian decision-makers, with Putin leading the way. Does the EU now want to mess with all Russians and postulate collective guilt? This is the delicate core of the debate.
No decision is expected in Prague yet; after all, this is an informal meeting. High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, said it was “not a good idea” to deny Russians entry indiscriminately. It is necessary to be “more selective” and also to think of the 300,000 Russians who have fled Russia, he said at a conference at the University of Santander.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) signaled a willingness to compromise. The Chancellor’s Office and the Foreign Office agree “that we will find a solution together in Europe that brings everyone’s legitimate concerns and issues together,” Baerbock said on Friday. However, “140 million people in Russia should not be abandoned forever” and put in “clan custody”.
Bulgaria is fighting for its political stability. The EU country will elect a new parliament at the beginning of October – for the fourth time since spring 2021. In June 2022, the liberal-social democratic coalition of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov broke apart after only half a year. President Rumen Radev then appointed a transitional government of experts at the beginning of August (Europe.Table reported).
The pro-Western government under Petkov stood firmly with the other member states, which supported far-reaching sanctions against Russia for its attack on Ukraine. It expelled some seventy Russian diplomats from the country. Sofia also refused to comply with Vladimir Putin’s demand that it pay for Russian gas supplies in rubles. Gazprom subsequently cut off Bulgaria’s gas supply in April, making it one of the first EU countries to do so.
This Moscow-critical course is now in question. Traditionally, Russia has had great influence in the country on the Black Sea. Moscow was considered a reliable friend, and Bulgaria also dependended on Gazprom’s supplies. The Russian state-owned company covered more than 90 percent of the country’s gas needs. The long-term contract with Gazprom expires at the end of 2022.
The relationship changed radically with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the meantime, however, pro-Russian forces have gained momentum in Bulgarian society, not least because of the sharp rise in energy and food prices. Observers expect an increase in votes for pro-Russian parties in the parliamentary elections in the fall. Polls currently suggest a neck-and-neck race between Petkov, a Harvard graduate with his party “We Continue the Change”, and his predecessor Boyko Borisov, head of the right-wing conservative GERB party.
The interim government appointed at the beginning of August by Russia-friendly President Radev under former Labor and Social Affairs Minister Galeb Donev is already initiating a departure from the previous course. It is endeavoring to ensure the security of energy and food supplies.
Energy Minister Rossen Hristov recently announced that he would also negotiate with Gazprom on resuming gas supplies to this end. “If necessary, negotiations with Gazprom will be resumed,” he said after a meeting of the Bulgarian task force on the energy crisis. The Russian supplier is an “absolutely valid option”.
Hristov is responding to fears in Bulgarian society about the next winter and is also receiving support from the business community: Bulgarian associations and trade unions are calling for possible gas supplies to be explored with Moscow to avert damage to the domestic industry. The energy minister accuses Petkov’s government of having damaged relations with Russia.
How long Bulgaria’s gas reserves will last is disputed. Currently, the country is also talking with Azerbaijan about additional gas supplies. Bulgaria currently receives around one billion cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan. The annual demand is around three billion cubic meters.
Moscow already announced: From Russia’s point of view, no new contract is needed for the resumption of gas supplies. The Russian ambassador Eleonora Valentinovna Mitrofanova said that the gas would have to be paid for in rubles. Energy Minister Hristov, however, does not expect easy and quick results: “The talks will be very hard and very difficult.”
On the European stage, Sofia faces a loss of face if Bulgaria agrees to this concession to Moscow. The country would drop out of solidarity within the EU. The damage to foreign policy would be a severe test for the new government.
In addition, the country faces a domestic political test. Since the expert government took office, there have been repeated protests. On Wednesday, supporters of the conservative-liberal party Democratic Bulgaria demonstrated in front of President Radev’s official residence against negotiations with Gazprom. The demonstrators fear that Moscow is regaining influence and fueling corruption in Bulgaria through its patronage networks.
2020 was a significant year for Katherina Reiche. Not only did she take up her post as CEO at the Essen-based energy service and infrastructure provider Westenergie. The 25 members of the National Hydrogen Council, newly convened by the German government, also elected her to the top position.
A heavy workload for Reiche (49), but the graduate chemist brings a lot of experience with networks, networking, and leadership. From 1998 to 2015, Reiche worked for the CDU in federal politics, including as Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, then at the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure.
Then in 2015, her seamless move from politics to business, or more precisely to the board of the Association of Municipal Enterprises, was not without controversy, just before the waiting period for politicians was passed. At Westenergie, Reiche is now responsible for a seamlessly functioning electricity, gas, water and broadband network to the furthest corners of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Lower Saxony.
The 174,000 kilometers of the power grid are under particular scrutiny because not only consumers are connected to it, but also solar, wind and biomass plants that feed electricity into it. And it is not only energy networks that Reiche weaves. At the Fempower Academy she founded, Reiche, herself a mother of three, prepares women in the company for management positions and offers them networking opportunities.
Reiche has all kinds of crisis experience in her work: the Covid pandemic, the flood in the Ahr Valley, the Ukraine war and the resulting gas crisis. Add to that the interrupted or restricted supply chains and the tensions between the West and China. All of this makes the urgently needed development and expansion of resilient networks more difficult. After all, to make networks more resilient, they need to be given digital components.
“If, as in the Ahr Valley, the entire infrastructure fails – electricity, water, gas, telecommunications, Internet, cold chains, gas stations, simply everything – then I have to start rebuilding everything at some point,” Reiche explains. “To do this, we install 450-megahertz radio technology, for example, which allows us to transmit machine data quickly and over long distances. For example, we can restart a power plant from the outside.”
In its strategy, the previous German government already stipulated that Germany must become independent of China, explains Reiche. The technology used is now no longer considered solely in terms of price but also in terms of cyber security, espionage and resilience against potential attacks, and where possible, components from Europe are selected.
But to get a picture of the situation in the first place, we need more digital network components, so-called digital local network stations, to monitor the network via control centers. Even better: smart meters in every household to be able to determine precisely where the infrastructure is damaged or has disappeared altogether. Reiche would like to see more speed and consistency from the German government in this area.
However, the government is moving ahead with hydrogen. The National Hydrogen Council, which Reiche chairs, has been working intensively since 2020 on how hydrogen can be procured in sufficient quantities and distributed to the necessary locations. Here, Eon subsidiary Westenergie is testing in several projects how entire cities can be supplied with hydrogen instead of natural gas in a climate-neutral way in the future to reduce dependence on fossil fuels from abroad. Lisa-Martina Klein
