“Merkel bets on ‘Germany first’”

Germany is not the “poster child” it likes to portray itself as, writes Ursula Weidenfeld in an opinion piece in Tagesspiegel. She points to the German government’s Nord Stream 2 policy, years of electricity loop flows through neighbouring countries, and the country’s acceptance of French nuclear power on days with little wind or sunshine. Germany puts national interests first instead of developing a joint EU energy policy, writes Weidenfeld.

Read the opinion piece in German here.

For background, see the News Digest entries Germany and Austria say US sanction plans against Russia threaten Europe’s energy security and Merkel calls US gas sanctions against Russia “irregular behaviour”, and the CLEW factsheet Loop flows: Why is wind power from northern Germany putting east European grids under pressure?