Prepare for ‘Energy Lockdowns’… Just in Case

Brussels avoids speaking about it openly but the ghost of the 2020 COVID-19 crisis is beginning to reappear in the corridors of the EU. What if the next major restriction does not come from a virus but from a lack of energy? In Brussels, nobody wants to utter the term yet. The European Commission avoids any official comparison with the pandemic and rejects talk of “energy lockdowns.” But the idea is beginning to circulate with growing normality. The war with Iran and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz have triggered a crisis that no longer resembles the...