Both boldness and consensus are urgently needed, and those who doubt that Europe is capable of either can take heart from two recent European Commission decisions: a politically ambitious proposal to force the complete separation of networks of pipelines and wires from the companies that supply gas and electricity; and a proposal that Gazprom and other non-EU businesses can control Union energy assets only if they meet tough new conditions, including reciprocal access to, say, Russia’s market for EU energy companies.