Has Europe cracked its energy-security problem?

The panic of previous years has abated, but the EU can still do more to help itself

A DECADE ago, energy security was – or seemed, in the context of energy-price inflation, bristling geopolitics and the tenacity of peak-oil theorists – an emergency. The tense, standoffish relationship between the energy-deficient EU and its main natural gas supplier, Russia, matched the Malthusian mood: commercial disputes between Russian gas monopoly Gazprom and Naftogaz, its Ukrainian counterpart, led to interruptions in Russian gas flows to Ukraine in 2006 and 2009. They happened in January, too, the coldest time of year. Both times, European customers suffered. The oil sector saw trouble too: during a pricing dispute between Russia and Belarus in 2007 – also in January – Russia stopped