Norbert Röttgen and Michael Roth
“The Russians have a very keen sense for hairline cracks” – foreign politicians warn of the EU falling apart
Cohesion in the EU is in danger of crumbling
© Ralph Peters / Imago Images
The dispute over gas in Europe threatens cohesion in the EU. The two foreign politicians Michael Roth (SPD) and Norbert Röttgen (CDU) see unity at risk – also because there is no strategy.
Two of the leading German foreign politicians have expressed understanding for the reservations of numerous member states against the EU’s emergency plan to reduce gas consumption. Michael Roth, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, told the magazine stern: “If you invoke team play in Sunday speeches, but then do something that nobody else except Austria thinks is really good, you can’t expect unlimited solidarity later on.” The SPD politician reminded of the controversial German solo effort in the North Sea pipeline Nord Stream 2.
The CDU politician Norbert Röttgen argued similarly. “Months have been wasted in which we could have developed a European savings strategy. Now we demand solidarity after all the German special ways. That cannot work if Germany has to argue in an existential phase: We have already helped you,” said Röttgen to the star.
At the same time, Roth and Röttgen warned in an interview with stern that the European Union would fall apart. “The Russians have a very keen sense of hairline cracks,” Roth said, referring to the growing disagreement in the EU over the response to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine. They reinforced these hairline cracks with their propaganda, and “then the crack quickly becomes a gap and you threaten to break up,” the SPD foreign policy expert continued. His CDU colleague Röttgen said: “Putin sets the clearly recognizable traps. But it’s us who walk in there.”