Unity. Solidarity. Breakdown.

“If Germany does not take any responsibility for its energy security, I will propose to our government that we cut the baltic [sic] cable. Solidarity only works as long as no one is inflicting injury on itself.”

The above is a tweet by Swedish Green MP Take Aanstoot from last week that followed a declaration by Germany that it will proceed as planned with its remaining nuclear reactors.

At first, and probably second, glance, you’d say no truer words have been spoken recently, at least in Europe. Dig deeper, however, and you’d realise solidarity is about sharing the pain. And some EU member states seem reluctant to do that.

The definition of solidarity, according to the Oxford Dictionaries, is “unity or agreement of feeling or action, especially among individuals with a common interest; mutual support within a group.”

Support, I’d argue, tends to come at a cost in times of crisis. Throwing sympathetic glances at Germany as its factories shut down under the unbearable weight of electricity and gas bills would hardly constitute true support. Sharing your gas with Germany would. But it would cost you.

Aanstoot’s tweet expresses the opinion of a single individual and is not representative of even his country’s stance on the matter of European energy solidarity. Yet news like this one about Germany’s neighbours being reluctant to ink gas-sharing deals with Berlin might make one suspect not all is as solidary as the EU governments would like it to be.

"Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Poland are evading the constructive negotiations and conclusion of the bilateral solidarity agreements with us," the German government said in a report to MPs, according to German media reports cited by Reuters.

Is it me or does this sound very much like “Mum, John and Tom don’t want to play with me!”? If I were the mum in this hypothetical situation, I’d probably say something along the lines of “That’s because you always end up taking all their toys, Olaf.”