Wrong Choice

The government of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has placed a limit on European spending on (infrastructure) projects that will complete after 2010... which basically denies a major funding source for the Nabucco Gas Pipeline project.

Ms. Merkel, it seems, favors the NordStream project.

This actively undermines the declared priorities of the E.U. in their 2008 Energy Policy funding. It also smacks of a "big-country veto" of E.U. decisions.

This is a wrong choice if the declared goal of Europe reducing its dependence on Russian Natural Gas is to be met. NordStream *is a Russian project*, intended to enhance Russian dominance in the Central European market. Nabucco is to be an alternative, drawing on non-Russian Central Asian suppliers.

We've been over this ground before here; NordStream is at best just more risk, and at worst a Putin-Schroeder "get rich" scheme.

This is a choice that should be reversed, and quickly.