Yes, it's right to call attention to such ethical choices.

Yes, it is good to call attention to this. Here the national stereotypes were reversed. Stereotype: corrupt Italian, honest German. Real life example: honest Italian Prodi, corrupt German Schroeder.

I too believe that what Schroder did was awful, most of my German friends do as well.

The one thing to call out is that if he indeed believes that Nord Stream provides his country with a constant supply of energy, relatively free of interference by countries who want to sabotage or siphon from it - then couldn't you take his actions to also be acting in the national interest?

It is to Prodi's credit that he did not accept the job. Unfortunately, he did the damage by signing Itlay up to waht will be a venue for Russian blackmail.

davod,

Not a fan of Russia's, but Prodi has to make sure the country's infrastructure can meet its future energy needs.

The bad news is that Europe as a whole is weak and getting weaker. Blackmail by Russia will be an ongoing feature of its future, barring some kind of EC/EU energy policy that restores bargaining parity. That's been obvious for years, without any progress - and the Russian overtures to defeated European leaders are part and parcel of Putin's longer-term strategy to make sure there never is any progress.

On the other hand, the energy has to come from somewhere. Europe's #2 natural gas supplier is Algeria, for instance, which has future blackmail issues of its own. Near as I can tell, all choices were problematic. Even in Italy, though, you've still got to look at the options and decide.

With that decision made, Prodi absolutely did the right thing by refusing to personally profit from his choice - or weaken his country's future bargaining position. And yeah, that breaks some stereotypes. I'm not deeply conversant with Italian politics and goings-on, but I can say this: whatever else he may have done in office, Prodi's conduct in this affair will remain deserving of praise.

Coolest news of the day.

Without a doubt

Romano Prodi has done the correct thing indeed, we must recognize and applaud it.

I am sure, the dark past of the energy sector in Italy, a past that he has in part lived, has played a major role in making the right decision.

Far worse than Schroder, we can find Jorge Dezcallar, chief of the Spanish Secret Services during 3/11, now working for REPSOL oil company, after its takeover by a Catalonian regional-government-owned bank; takeover authorized by Zapatero.

Putin is playing an old game.

Joe, there is a simple thing Italy and Spain can do: build nuclear power stations and go electric as far as you can. Italy sacked all its nuclear power reactors, but Spain still has 8 in operation. If you added 5 new ones, which can be build in the same sites, wall to wall to the others saving many studies (seismic, winds, evacuation, NIMBY effect...), they would cover almost entirely the base consumption of Spain. Add 4 more in two new sites and you get an excess of production of electricity for most hours, leaving gas powered turbines to fill just the central part of the "peaks" (the top of the "peaks" are supplied by hydro).

With cheap electricity, you can go electric: due to its mild weather, heat pumps are efficient for probably half of the Spanish's homes and solar heat for most of them. Intercity links are covered by high speed trains (electric), commuters by more electric trains (although just before the Elections we may use cars instead). Many other Spaniards daily displacements (very short compared to America's average) can be carried out using electric scooters or even small cars...

Something similar could be devised for Italy, although the inexistence of nuclear sites makes NIMBY issues far more important there.

Is there truly an energy problem? Well, I think it is, but I also believe that it is being exaggerated I am sure for profit.