The European Union sketched out new plans to reduce its dependence on Russian natural gas and to bolster its energy security while warning Moscow not to cut off gas supplies to Ukraine. The push to forge closer energy ties among the bloc’s 28 countries and find alternative suppliers has intensified over the past weeks, as Russian threats to shut off the flow of gas to Ukraine raise the specter of supply disruptions for Europe as well. The Ukraine crisis has galvanized the EU into mapping out a new energy-security strategy for the 28-country bloc that will be discussed by EU leaders at the end of June. “The great game of geopolitics is making an unwelcome return and this is being felt particularly in the area of energy,” European Commission President José Manuel Barroso told a conference on energy security in Brussels on Wednesday, in which he outlined proposals to […]