As the EU economy is heavily exposed to Russia’s mineral resources, European countries are well aware that they have been caught in a trap of anti-Russian sanctions. On the one hand, if the EU countries go ahead with Russian petroleum imports in the same volumes, any restrictions will be to no avail. On the other hand, the full embargo is pushing the fragile EU economy into a full-blown energy crisis. Therefore, Europe is ready to ensure energy security at a high cost.
The total bill for saving the European energy market this winter is likely to exceed $200 billion, Bloomberg energy and commodities columnist Javier Blas reckoned the looming EU losses. This is a cautious estimate and “doesn’t cover the worst-case scenario of both Russia fully shutting down natural gas supply to Europe and a colder-than-average winter.” It goes without saying that European taxpayers will bear the brunt of an acute energy shortage and sky-high energy prices. Eventually, millions of households will bear the cost - either directly and immediately, through soaring power and gas bills, or later, via higher taxes to pay for government bailouts.
Javier Blas said that very few state leaders “grasp the magnitude of the coming crisis and its costs, with Emmanuel Macron of France and Olaf Scholz of Germany being among the only ones that appear to get it now.”
Earlier, the Financial Times reported that a plethora of factories in the UK could be suspended in case the colder-than-expected winter entails a gas deficit and Russia cuts off its gas supplies to Europe. In this context, large energy industrial consumers are obliged to warn the government that the domestic economy is on the verge of collapse.
