WSJ: Energy Czar Leads Effort to Ease Russia’s Gas Grip

The European Union should have an energy czar next month, and top of her agenda is reducing the bloc’s dependence on Russian natural gas.

Yet Alenka Bratusek, the former Slovenian prime minister nominated to the new post of vice president for energy union, will struggle to unseat Russia from its perch as Europe’s chief gas supplier.

The European Parliament still needs to confirm Ms. Bratusek, whose broad remit would include unifying the EU’s energy markets and encouraging domestic energy production such as renewables. The potentially powerful position is the brainchild of incoming European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who has described energy as one of Europe’s political priorities for the next five years.

The EU spends more than €1 billion ($1.26 billion) a day on fossil-fuel imports and most of that goes to Russia—by far the largest supplier of the bloc’s gas and oil.
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