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Gene Ellis

Daniel Gros calls for a broad array of EU measures to revive output growth and strength... - 0 views

www.project-syndicate.org/...d-strengthen-regional-cohesion

shared by Gene Ellis on 25 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • Restarting Ukraine’s Economy
  • the price of gas must be increased substantially to reflect its cost,
  • governance of the country’s pipelines, which still earn huge royalties for carrying Russian gas to Western Europe, must be overhauled.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • subsidies for domestic coal production must be stopped
  • Ever since these pipelines were effectively handed over to nominally private companies in murky deals, earnings from transit fees have gone missing, along with vast amounts of gas, while little maintenance has been carried out.
  • An energy ministry that decides who can obtain gas at one-fifth of its cost and who cannot is obviously subject to irresistible pressures to distribute its favors to whomever offers the largest bribes or kickbacks. The same applies to coal subsidies, except that the subsidies go to the most inefficient producers.
  • these steps also risk hitting eastern Ukraine, which contains a substantial Russophone minority, particularly hard. Some there might be tempted by the allure of a better life in “Mother Russia,” with its vast resources of cheap energy.
  • And it should open its markets, not only by abolishing its import tariffs on Ukrainian products, which has already been decided, but also by granting a temporary exemption from the need to meet all of the EU’s complicated technical standards and regulations.
  • At the same time, the EU should help to address the cause of extraordinary heating costs: the woeful energy inefficiency of most of the existing housing stock.
  • Experience in Eastern Europe, where energy prices had to be increased substantially in the 1990’s, demonstrated that simple measures – such as better insulation, together with maintenance and repair of the region’s many long-neglected central heating systems – yield a quick and substantial payoff in reducing energy intensity.
  • Even a slight improvement in Ukraine’s energy efficiency would contribute more to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions than the vast sums currently being spent to develop renewable energy sources.
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