Diarmid O’Sullivan and Tom Mayne of Global Witness have a new opinion article in the Financial Times on the gas crisis – they frame the argument for transparency quite well:

So what can be done? The EU has attributes that, wielded intelligently, could give it some influence over the countries that supply its energy. Europe is a big market, a source of commercial finance and development aid and, more subtly, a source of legitimacy for governments abroad that often rest on shaky political foundations.