Latvian Expert: V4 Should Be More Ambitious in Digitalization and Draw Inspiration from the Baltic

The V4 countries are only a political decision away of improving their digital infrastructure, they should be more ambitious, says senior fellow from German Marshall Fund Brussels Office Kristine Berzina in an interview with EURACTIV Czech Republic. 

The EU wants to become carbon neutral by 2050. Meanwhile, a construction of natural gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 is going on. What do you think about compatibility of these two things?

There are two different ways to look at it. Nord Stream is a way to expand natural gas and to phase out of coal. But on the other hand, it also means an expansion of fossil fuel usage in Europe. If you are using Nord Stream to phase out coal, which is what Germany is trying to do, then yes, you could have some short-term carbon improvements. But the problem is that the EU needs to go fully carbon neutral by 2050. Which, for a long time, sounded really far away. However, it is going to be not as far away anymore, there are already two decades into this century and only three to go. If you have a pipeline that only starts functioning and needs to get paid off, how long will that pipeline run forward? So, the problem is that if you invest in a pipeline, you are going to have the pipeline for a long time, which means that you guarantee that Germany and Central Europe are going to be burning natural gas for a very long time. The alternatives are complicated, but I think we have a better sense of how they exist now.