Thus Der Spiegel today. “European leaders agree that the Ukraine crisis has made natural gas supplies from Russia precarious,” elaborates the newspaper. “Yet they are divided over what to do about it. Poland wants a new European energy union, but others seem to be in no hurry.” But the blindness to a natural gas policy goes a long way back. The Ukraine crisis has only made the excessive dependence on Russia more palpable than ever before, but the dependence has been there for decades. Going for natural gas from countries south of Russia has been pushed by America, but the requisite pipelines would need to go through Turkey, which few in the Union want as a full member. In short, the alternative to Russian natural gas has been sidelined. Of course, national interests diverge. The Union comes a distant second more often than not, and especially in the leading countries, such as Germany and France. Which is why a call for a new European natural gas policy is a bit of a pipedream. Just as the Union itself. Pace Poland, which is forever stuck between Germany and Russia.