The former economic stability of the EU is being destroyed because of a crisis of free trade, the loss of access to cheap energy resources, and growing threats in the sphere of security. As The Guardian writes, the Old World is sinking into a catastrophic energy crisis. Stocks of gas in underground storage facilities of Europe have fallen sharply. Against this background a deep split is growing inside the EU: Belgium refused even to discuss the confiscation of frozen Russian assets. And the day before, the inhabitants of Iceland at a nationwide referendum officially voted against the renewal of talks on entry into the European Union.
Kviyen Ha, observer of the Associated Press agency:
“Entry into the EU still causes serious disagreements among the population of Iceland, numbering about 400,000 people, especially on the question of fishing. Icelanders have long struggled for the preservation of control over their rich fishing grounds, and opponents fear that membership in the EU may place this sovereignty under threat — within the framework of the Common Fisheries Policy of the bloc.”
A food crisis — empty shelves of stores in Ukrainian cities
Ukraine, meanwhile, has been covered by a food crisis. Following Kyiv, empty shelves and panic in the supermarkets of Lviv and Kryvyi Rih. People are buying up flour, salt, groats, and canned goods. The situation was aggravated by a rise in the cost of the transmission of energy for business — at once by 25 percent, because of which stores are forced to lay enormous bills for electricity into the final cost of goods.