Coal built the EU. Will gas destroy it?

The other great test of Europe’s solidarity, this winter and beyond, will be its ability to share those gas supplies between countries in the event of shortages. Failure to do so, said Elisabetta Cornago, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think tank, would damage not only people’s well-being — but faith in the EU itself.

“It will mean businesses shutting down or, depending on how cold the winter is, it could mean insufficient gas for warming homes in parts of the EU,” she said. “That is an extreme scenario but if that happens and the concept of ‘energy solidarity’ does not translate into actual flows, then there is a risk of that being exploited by populist forces — and prompting a backlash against Brussels.”