Lobbying power
June 26, 2009
In an advance copy of Manager Magazin's Friday issue, the German magazine reported that Fischer, a former Green Party leader, will be providing "political and PR consulting" to the European Union's Nabucco gas pipeline.
The 3,300-kilometer (2,000-mile) Nabucco pipeline is a key energy project which will bring gas from the Caspian Sea to Austria via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. The Nabucco pipeline has been given a high priority in EU energy policy, however differences between the countries has stalled the project.
According to Manager Magazin, Fischer's most important job will be to keep Turkey happy. "Fischer is highly regarded in Turkey because he was always open to it joining the EU," according to the article.
The pipeline's main goal - and greatest hurdle - is to bypass Russia, in a bid to reduce Europe's energy dependence on Moscow. Currently, the EU gets about one-third of its energy from Russia, through transit countries Belarus and Ukraine. Nabucco has therefore been a hot political topic between the EU and Russia, with Moscow doing everything it can to torpedo the process.
High-profile lobbying
The Russians, for their part, have been pushing for the Nord Stream pipeline through the North Sea. They are supported in their efforts by Joschka Fischer's former boss and political ally, ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Just after he left office in 2005, Schroeder signed a lucrative deal with Russian state-run energy giant Gazprom to head the advisory board for the company's Nord Stream pipeline project. While still in office, Schroeder signed the agreement to build the pipeline with his close friend Vladimir Putin, the current Russian prime minister.
Last January, Schroeder also joined the board of British-Russian oil firm TNK-BP.
Fischer and Schroeder were the leading two politicians in the seven year Social Democrat/Green coalition government. Fischer withdrew from politics after the Greens failed to win enough votes to remain in government in the 2005 elections. Since then, he has lived in the United States, working as a lecturer at Princeton University.
kj/AFP/dpa
Editor: Trinity Hartman