Money and nukes. The worst thing Europe did was get addicted to cheap Russian gas. It was a trojan horse that encouraged governments to look the other way.
Totally unrelated but now I wanna jab my elbow at Ariane 6 (rocket)...
The Drushba pipeline through Poland was open at the same time that Sikorski congratulated the U.S. for blowing up Nord Stream. It remained open long after that. Both France and the U.S. were buying uranium from Russia until 2024. No complaints from Sikorski about that.
Nordstream was owned by Russia, Germany, France, and The Netherlands. There was a pipeline from the German terminal to Britain.
There are many hypocrites of the first order in the oil/gas game. In the context of this submission, it is appropriate to note that so called "far right" or "far left" parties are the only ones who point out facts like the above in public.
Voters notice this and blaming Russian interference is a very weak game that endangers the democracies in the EU.
What else were they supposed to do? Block transit altogether and alienate their partners?
Some guy from Eastern Europe: "You don't know Russians. Let me tell you about my experience with them..."
Some guy from Western Europe: "LOL, I see you believe American propaganda completely uncritically."
The guy from EE: "What? No, I was telling you what happened to my family..."
The guy from WE: "Let's talk about how America sucks instead."
Seems to me that for many people Russia wasn't even a real country, just some boogeyman that American propaganda made up. Then they suddenly woke up, and now they are like "oh no, we must not escalate!". Guys, you don't even know that making concessions to Russia is the fastest way to escalate. (You didn't expect North Korean soldiers attacking a European country, did you? That's what you get for your non-escalation. There will be more.)
True, it was really bad for us to be able build a decent industry and export all over the world. Much better to be addicted to expensive USA gas and let our industry and economies crumble.
You can't change geography, Europe doesn't have raw resources, Russia has tons of them. We're destined to have a close commercial relationship.
Dp you understand how energy-dense Uranium is? You can power a 1GW nuclear reactor for a week with a carry-on suitcase full of pellets. The proximity is utterly irrelevant.
It's also not even necessary! Uranium was discovered on the Czechia / Germany border and there are still many reserves there! Europe only stopped mining it in 2016!
And war between the US and China will also happen as soon as China moves to reintegrate Taiwan, and the EU will again be expected to work as a tool of the US, to its own detriment.
Will you then say that the EU should have done away with cheap Chinese manufacturing and resources earlier? And claim it was some sort of a Trojan Horse? Or will at some point the EU consider putting EU interests first?