Eu will grab britain's gas

[Oisín]

EU WILL GRAB BRITAIN'S GAS

EU leaders have secret power to seize our gas supplies

Britain's vital North Sea oil and gas supplies are to be taken over by Europe under emergency plans revealed for the first time in Brussels yesterday.

EU leaders are demanding control of British energy reserves to prevent power blackouts that have left millions of eastern Europeans without heat in Arctic weather due to the Russian gas blockade.

Euro-MPs are calling for the creation of a European gas reserve, made up of British and Dutch supplies, which member states can tap into in the event of any future shortage.

The transfer of ownership would be enacted under secret powers written into the controversial Lisbon Treaty. It gives Europe the legal power to take over individual states’ supplies to “ensure security of energy supply in the Union”.

Ultimate control over Britain’s vast natural gas and oil fields – by far the biggest resource within the EU – will fall to Brussels if the new treaty, which has already been ratified by Britain, is adopted throughout Europe.

Last night, however, there were calls for Britain to stand firm against the seizure of our oil and gas. UKIP leader Nigel Farage said: “Brussels has already stolen our fish. Now they want our oil and gas. These are vital resources to Britain and we demand that the British Government vetoes these proposals. This shows how vital it is that the UK holds a referendum on our future in the European Union.”

Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said: “EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso is right to say that the EU needs to help eastern Europe with its energy security. But giving the EU control over our national energy reserves is totally the wrong way to go about it.

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[Beorn]

Let this be a lesson to the Scottish nationalists who wish to depart the Union and go straight into the arms of the EU.

[Oisín]

Let this be a lesson to the Scottish nationalists who wish to depart the Union and go straight into the arms of the EU.

Wouldn't it be much of a muchness? Presently Westminster takes the Scots oil, under this plan the EU would take it. Either way it's the Scots who are missing out.

[Beorn]

Yet under the Union they still receive the benefits of their oil and gas, which, incidentally, is not fully Scottish, but that is another subject all together.

Under the EU, they would see even less.

[TheGreatest]

A better solution is to get the Ukraine to stop acting like a section 8 nigg**, stop stealing gas and pay it's damn bill!
To me this sounds like the EU is just trying to consolidate more and more power, taking advantage of every given opportunity when it presents itself.

[Carl]

Perhaps the Oil does come ashore in Scotland mostly - but the companies which went to the vast expense of extracting it were British surely .... Scotland never paid for the lot! It couldnt have . The Gas is different however.


Its just as well there is still some gas coming in from the north sea - we had another -7 last night - and its still afreezing!

Trust the Express to go over the top with this. Many of the companies here are Continental these days and they have their priorities it seems !

[Treffie]

I think Europe should source all its gas from Norway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sn%C3%B8hvit

[Æmeric]

Wouldn't it be much of a muchness? Presently Westminster takes the Scots oil, under this plan the EU would take it. Either way it's the Scots who are missing out.

Isn't it really Norwegian oil?

In the 14th century Norway still treated Orkney and Shetland as a Norwegian province, but Scottish influence was growing, and in 1379 the Scottish earl Henry Sinclair took control of Orkney on behalf of the Norwegian king Håkon VI Magnusson.[6] In 1348 Norway was severely weakened by the Black Plague and in 1397 it entered the Kalmar Union. With time Norway came increasingly under Danish control. King Christian I of Denmark and Norway was in financial trouble and, when his daughter Margaret became engaged to James III of Scotland in 1468, he needed money to pay her dowry. Apparently without the knowledge of the Norwegian Riksråd (Council of the Realm) he entered into a contract on 8 September 1468 with the King of Scotland in which he pawned Orkney for 50,000 Rhenish guilders.[7] On 28 May the next year he also pawned Shetland for 8,000 Rhenish guilders.[8] He secured a clause in the contract which gave future kings of Norway the right to redeem the islands for a fixed sum of 210 kilograms (460 lb) of gold or 2,310 kilograms (5,100 lb) of silver. Several attempts were made during the 17th and 18th centuries to redeem the islands, without success.

[Graham]

The gas fields sit off England btw. Aberdeens in the oil, There's potentially loads of oil sitting off rockall aswell I think. Its funny seeing the oil going to teesside on that map, hmmm.