Being a web editor for the European Parliament’s website is not a common job. Every month we write around 50 articles about everything from energy security to roaming charges. If I have to highlight two topics that I’ve worked a bit with during the first quarter of 2009, it would be the gas crisis and the financial crisis. Both crises have had a direct effect on millions of ordinary European citizens and in both cases The European Parliament have been involved in the search for solutions.

 Climate efforts

 Climate change and energy security have been extremely hot topics on the European agenda for the last several months. Through 2008 members of the European Parliament’s Temporary Committee on Climate Change has been very active traveling around the World raising awareness about the dangers of climate change and CO2-emissions. They have held talks with various parliamentarians, government officials and NGO´s from central polluting countries such as China, Russia and the US in order to explore attitudes towards a post-Kyoto deal.

The heat is on.

 On 17 December 2008 the Parliament gave its backing to the EU’s Climate Package after nearly one year of legislative work. The aim of the package is to ensure that the EU will achieve its ambitious objectives of slashing greenhouse-gas emissions and boosting renewables. Our unit has intensively covered the package, and you can read the articles in the climate package feature.

 In March 2009 the Parliament set out wide-ranging recommendations for the EU’s future energy policy, including ambitious long term climate targets and emergency action plans in case of gas supply shortages.

 A crisis that exposed the need for a common energy policy

Russia said it had been subsidising Ukrainian gas imports for years and wanted it to pay 450 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters of gas instead of the 179,5 dollars, which Kiev used to pay. 

The importance of the Parliament’s efforts to tackle climate change and to create a common energy policy became clear only a few weeks after the MEPs had adopted the Climate Package. The first week of January Russia cut the gas supply to Ukraine because of an energy price dispute. Russia said it had been subsidising Ukrainian gas imports for years and wanted it to pay 450 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters of gas instead of the 179,5 dollars, which Kiev used to pay.

 Europe receives more than 80 % of its gas (and 25 % of its total needs) from pipelines that run through Ukraine.  The gas dispute exposed the EU´s dependence on Russian energy. 17 EU-countries were directly affected by the crisis, leaving homes and hospitals without heating and leading to the closure of schools and factories. I had the chance to interview 3 MEPs about how the gas dispute affected their home countries (Slovakian Zita Pleštinská (EPP-ED), Hungarian András Gyürk (EPP-ED) and Bulgarian Atanas Paparizov (PSE)).

 They told about how the abrupt disruption of supplies had “affected the heating of hospitals, nurseries and schools”. Pleštinská said that thousands of Slovakian companies had to suspend the production paying employees only 60% of their salaries. They all agreed that the gas crisis exposed the EU´s dependence on energy and showed the need for a common European energy policy.

 “We need to link the Members States’ electricity and gas grids and agree on storage capacities to further improve energy solidarity”, said András Gyürk. Paparizov saw “a common European Gas market based on adequate infrastructure and obligatory strategic reserves” as “the only” possible basis for secured energy supplies in the future.

 The gas crisis showed how a dispute between two external actors can have a very direct effect on the everyday lives of millions of ordinary European citizens. Job losses, salary reductions and closed elementary schools are all things which affect people’s lives. It also showed why closer energy cooperation is so important for the EU.

 A crisis that changed Iceland’s European perspective

 Another crisis which has affected many Europeans is the global financial crisis. The Commission estimate that up to 3.5 million EU citizens face losing their jobs in 2009 as a direct result of the crisis.

Gas is the new oil.

One of the coutries hardest hit is Iceland. Just 7 months ago it was the fifth richest nation in the World. One month later the country went bankrupt!  Iceland couldn’t pay back its external debts, and the Icelandic currency, the krona, became essentially valueless in the rest of the world. It was a dramatic event, which reversed Iceland’s long standing opposition to EU membership.

On 25 of February, around 60 MPs from Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Norway visited the Parliament to discuss the development of the Northern dimension in the context of the financial crisis. I went there withPavel, our  Czech colleague, who by the way speaks thirteen languages and knows a lot about Nordic politics! He insisted that we should do the first part of the interview with the Icelandic MP Karl Matthíasson in Danish. I have never tried to interview a foreign parliamentarian – or for that sake any foreigner at all – in my mother tongue, so that was quite an experience. 

The Commission estimate that up to 3.5 million EU citizens face losing their jobs in 2009 as a direct result of the crisis. 

He told us that Iceland had “very serious” currency problems, and that many people wanted to exchange the króna for the euro: “That is why people are talking more about the EU and I hear that more and more in my constituency.”

 “We became bankrupt as a whole nation“

 Matthíasson explained that the crisis have had a very strong impact on the pride and complacency among Icelanders: “With the financial crisis, people in Europe have lost money, but we became bankrupt as a whole nation! So people are not as proud about their country as they used to be… Our self-image has been smashed and that strengthens the idea to become a member of the EU.”

 The Bulgarian MEP Bilyana Raeva (ALDE), who chaired the EP´s delegation with the West Nordic Council, said that Iceland could become “one of the best members of the European Union”. She told us about her efforts to make the Icelandic MPs see the advantages of EU membership. It was fascinating to observe this young Bulgarian MEP being so interested in helping this small North Atlantic Island.

 Both the gas crisis and the financial crisis have resulted in job losses, lower incomes and uncertainty about the future for thousands of European families. Many MEPs have in both cases showed their solidarity as well as their ability to think “European” when major international challenges needs to be tackled.