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“A Russian gas molecule is a Russian gas molecule”
With Angela Merkel’s single-sentence statement at the 2019 Munich Security Conference, the German chancellor brought the controversy around the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline down to the lowest common denominator: the molecule.
Her goal was to defend the purpose of the pipeline, but what she really did, was bringing the problem of the discussion to the table: Russian gas is not Russian gas, but at the same time it is. Here is what Merkel meant to say, what she did not say, and what she should have said.
What Merkel meant to say: It does not matter whether you get your gas from Ukraine or from Nord Stream 2, it is Russian gas. One cannot say Europe becomes too dependent on Russian gas and in the same breath demand that the Russian-Ukrainian import pipeline needs to be preserved. The United States is worried about the EU getting too dependent on Russian gas, but defends Ukraine’s blatant political and economic dependency on Russia’s gas exports to the EU. It is a contradiction.
What Merkel did not say: It does not matter whether you get your gas from Nord Stream 2 or Ukraine, it remains Russian gas. This does not help the situation that the EU becomes too dependent on a single supplier, which is Russia. If Germany were to diversify its import sources, she might have said: A gas molecule can be Russian, Norwegian, Dutch, or Qatari and that is why it is just a gas molecule for us.
What Merkel should have said: A Russian gas molecule is a Russian gas molecule until it reaches the EU, then it is a German, Polish, Dutch, French, Austrian, Czech, or even Ukrainian gas molecule. It depends on who wants to buy the molecule. This is the idea of the liberalized European market, where not the origin, but only the price matters. The EU’s third energy package and its regulations for a liberalized market have put a strain on Russia’s monopolistic power, and we now have decided on a new directive that implies even more rules to our import countries. We can do it, but we should not alienate our suppliers.