Former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder has caused an uproar by accepting a job with Russian-German consortium building a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea. The deal was only signed in September -- two weeks before the elections that led to Schröder's retirement from politics -- giving the whole affair an aura of unsavory favoritism. Gerhard Schröder may no longer have the lead role on Germany's political stage, but it didn't take long for the ex-chancellor to once again ruffle feathers in Berlin. On Friday, Schröder confirmed he would head an advisory committee of a massive undersea Russian-German gas project, sparking a storm of protest about a potential conflict of interest. Schröder, along with his old chum Russian President Vladimir Putin, signed off on the €4-billion gas pipeline less than a fortnight before he lost Germany's general election in September. Now only weeks after leaving office he has agreed to take a plum job in a project headed by partially state-owned Russian energy giant Gazprom. Not surprisingly, the move has eyebrows raised across Germany. Regardless of his true intentions, Schröder should know better. His decision to head the advisory board of the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) appears as if he is being rewarded for pushing through the politically sensitive project that will stretch from western Siberia to Germany's Baltic Sea coast. Although not yet official, Schröder will reportedly earn €1 million a year from the consortium that belongs 51 percent to Gazprom. The remaining 49 percent is controlled by German energy firm Eon and a subsidiary of BASF. The deal is set to help secure Germany's strategic energy needs from 2010, but it has annoyed both Poland and Ukraine since the pipeline's sea route will bypass both of those Kremlin-critical countries -- denying them transit fees and potentially exposing them to greater Russian pressure over energy supplies.
Gerhard Schröder may no longer have the lead role on Germany's political stage, but it didn't take long for the ex-chancellor to once again ruffle feathers in Berlin. On Friday, Schröder confirmed he would head an advisory committee of a massive undersea Russian-German gas project, sparking a storm of protest about a potential conflict of interest.
Schröder, along with his old chum Russian President Vladimir Putin, signed off on the €4-billion gas pipeline less than a fortnight before he lost Germany's general election in September. Now only weeks after leaving office he has agreed to take a plum job in a project headed by partially state-owned Russian energy giant Gazprom. Not surprisingly, the move has eyebrows raised across Germany.
Regardless of his true intentions, Schröder should know better. His decision to head the advisory board of the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) appears as if he is being rewarded for pushing through the politically sensitive project that will stretch from western Siberia to Germany's Baltic Sea coast. Although not yet official, Schröder will reportedly earn €1 million a year from the consortium that belongs 51 percent to Gazprom. The remaining 49 percent is controlled by German energy firm Eon and a subsidiary of BASF.
The deal is set to help secure Germany's strategic energy needs from 2010, but it has annoyed both Poland and Ukraine since the pipeline's sea route will bypass both of those Kremlin-critical countries -- denying them transit fees and potentially exposing them to greater Russian pressure over energy supplies.
Nevertheless, Gerhard Schröder joins a long line of former German politicians who becom too greedy, too fast after leaving office: Graf Lambsdorff, or Helmut Kohl (who earned 300.000 Euro p.a. from Leo Kirch for who knows what).
He was a failure as a chancellor and now he manages even to be a failure as an ex-chancellor.
