Will Japan disaster force nuclear rethink in Europe?

Europe is on edge today as the world waits for the outcome of the Japanese nuclear accidents following Friday's earthquake. EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger is today holding emergency closed-door meetings with national nuclear safety regulators. Meanwhile across Europe countries are falling over themselves to reassure a jittery public over the safety of nuclear power plants. In Germany Angela Merkel has ordered safety checks of all of the country's plants. Austria called for such checks to be carried out across the EU, and the two main political groups in the European parliament backed that call. Spain and Portugal, both under Socialist governments, yesterday called for the phase-out of nuclear energy in Europe.

All of this is in response to the unfolding crisis revolving around several nuclear power plants in Japan that were damaged during the devastating earthquake and tsunami there on Friday. Yesterday a third explosion was seen at the Fukushima power plant, the most serious one so far. The government says to date the amount of radiation leaked into the atmosphere is not dangerous to humans outside of the evacuated 20km radius. But right now everyone is waiting to see if this ends up being a minor Three Mile Island type incident or, in the worst case scenario, another Chernobyl.

An embarrassing day for Ashton and Van Rompuy

Today's summit of European leaders is winding down, and now everyone is waiting for the prime ministers and presidents to emerge to announce what they have decided for the stability of the Eurozone. Between the euro crisis and the turmoil in Egypt, this council has turned out to bear little resemblance to the gathering it was supposed to be – a special summit on European energy issues.

This is actually the first European Council (the summits of European heads of government) that I've covered. Since my beat is environment, there hasn't been an occasion so far where the leaders have had an environmental issue on the agenda important enough for me to spend the day here. Today was supposed to be different. European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, now one year into his newly created position, called for this summit dedicated to energy last year. But as the European debt crisis has raged on, in the past two months it became clear that the seemingly non-pressing issue of energy security and sustainability was going to take a back seat to the crisis. And now that a revolution is underway in Egypt, by yesterday few were expecting to see anything significant come out of this council in the way of energy - even though that was still purportedly the main subject behind today's meeting.

Sure enough, at noon today we received a very short list of conclusions on energy by the council - and there was little to really sink your teeth into. I'm told the leaders spent just an hour talking about energy before moving on to the Egypt issue. Essentially they just looked over the pre-agreed conclusions and signed off on it. Ah well, it did mean I could file my story earlier and be done with it!

Putin suggests an EU-Russia union

Should Russia and the EU link up in a "common continental market?" Vladimir Putin thinks so. The Russian prime minister made the case for such a union in an editorial appearing in a German newspaper yesterday ahead of a two-day visit to Germany. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel quickly made her feelings on the subject known. Asked about Putin's editorial at a press conference yesterday she said she would have to "pour cold water" on the idea when she meets with Mr. Putin, though she said an EU-Russia free trade zone is a possibility.

The idea of a pan-European free trade zone, similar to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) struck in the 1990's, has been floated for some time. But Putin's editorial seems to go further than this. "We propose the creation of a harmonious economic community stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok," he wrote. "The result would be a unified continental market with a capacity worth trillions of euros." He said "the global economic crisis has revealed both Russia and the EU to be economically very vulnerable," adding that Russia is too dependent on its oil and gas exports while the EU is too dependant on imports, and the EU has lost its competitive edge because of de-industrialisation. Linking the two economies, Putin wrote, could solve problems on both sides.

Energy Wars

It's been freezing the past week here in Zurich, a situation I'm sharing with the rest of Europe as a brutal cold snap extends from London to Warsaw. And just as the chill is forcing us all to huddle around our heaters, a crisis is unfolding that could cut off the energy keeping us warm.

Since New Years Day, Russia has been steadily restricting its gas supply to Europe amid a dispute with Ukraine, which it accuses of siphoning off gas in transit. Now seven days later, exports of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine appear to have completely stopped. With the EU dependant on Russia for about a quarter of its total gas supplies, 80 percent of which is pumped through Ukraine, the situation is quickly becoming a crisis. It is a crisis many have predicted as they have warned of Europe's over-dependence on Russian energy.

Now the Balkans are facing a situation where they could in a matter of days face rolling blackouts. Bulgaria says it has sufficient supplies for just a few more days, and already thousands of Bulgarian homes are without heat as temperatures in some parts of the country hit -16 degrees celcius. Other countries have now dipped into their strategic reserves. Germany and Italy, which together account for nearly 50 percent of the gas consumed in the EU, are also in danger. So far the Ukraine disruption has only been felt in the Balkans and in Greece, but this could change as soon as tomorrow.

Russia's state-owned energy company Gazprom has accused Ukraine of stealing 15 percent of gas flowing through that country intended for Western Europe, however the Ukrainian government has insisted that amount is being lost through technical malfunctions only.

A Preview of Things to Come

Even if this energy crisis is resolved, it will still likely be an important lesson for the EU. Analysts have been warning that energy independence for the block is the most pressing issue it currently faces. With Russia proving to be an increasingly assertive and sometime hostile neighbor, the fact that the country could, if it wanted, plunge Europe into a deep freeze is very worrying. Even these minor disputes over one pipeline can cause huge disruptions.

Now that Serbia’s government has agreed to sell its oil and gas company, NIS, to Russia’s Gazprom, it looks like Russia will achieve its goal of building a pipeline called "South Stream" to send gas directly into the EU. Gazprom has also done similar deals with EU members Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria, all of which is a direct challenge to the European pipeline project Nabucco, which would bring gas to Europe from Iran and Azerbaijan via Turkey, reducing EU dependence on Russia. But the Nabucco project seems to be going nowhere while Russia's plans to build dedicated pipeways to the EU moves quickly ahead.

Russia insists that the Ukraine siphoning off energy is the real threat to EU gas supplies, but foreign policy analysts know better. It is precisely the fact that the EU is reliant on Russia for energy, no matter how or through whom it is supplied, that is worrying to many here.

EU slaps Microsoft, big energy

It’s been interesting to watch the very different coverage on either side of the Atlantic of the EU anti-trust ruling against Microsoft. While in Europe the ruling has been largely heralded, especially on the continent, in the US the coverage has been akin to something straight out of a World War I warning of the hun menace.

Even the New York Times coverage seems to suggest that the ruling is going to do tremendous damage to competition in the IT sector. The logic seems to be that big companies are the only companies that understand how to innovate or compete, and stifling them is going to cause a slowdown of growth.

On the other hand in Europe, there were huge sighs of relief coming from Brussels Monday. Considering the European Commission’s reputation as a crusader for consumers and competition, it would have been greatly damaged if the court hadn’t upheld their orders. Monday’s ruling is the result of nearly ten years of work by the EC to deal a blow to what they see as Microsoft’s monopoly over the software industry.