The EU’s Energy Union: A Sustainable Path to Energy Security?

Abstract

Today, energy represents the main challenge for every country. Given the dynamic and unpredictable form of supply and demand for energy in a global and globalized context, creating long-term policies as well as regional interior is vital to ensure energy security. In this context, the European Union,-as a main global actor-throughout the reform of the energy sector, wants to be on the cutting edge in the use of new technologies and the creation of a single energy market, not only inside the twenty eight member countries. Balkan countries have an important role in this process, which takes place inside the Energy Community. In these conditions, this article aims to analyse the recent transformation on European Union energy policy and provide an analysis of the commitments undertaken by Albania as a member of the Energy Community. 1. European Union Energy Policy: toward the implementation of new policies The European Union is in a critical stage of its energy policy. As the implementation phase of the 20-20-20 targets has already reached its interim point, the 28 member states are now discussing the targets for 2030. However, with an unfinished internal market for gas and electricity and with member states continuing to pursue bilateral energy relationships with supplier countries, the EU is still at the beginning of a common EU energy policy (CEPS, 2014). The EU is finally accepting that energy is too important to be ignored. Recent years have given us sufficient evidence that energy matters for the economy, for the environment, for social cohesion and solidarity and for local development and municipalities. Citizens care deeply about these areas, and the EU must be seen as addressing them. Energy Union should also be seen-at least from the perspective of the European Commission-as an attempt to infuse a new dynamic into the stuttering energy market and a more complicated climate change debate (S.Kurpas, Ch.Meyer, K. Gialoglou, 2014). In his mission letter to Arias Cañete, Jean-Claude Juncker asked the designated Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy to focus on further developing EU policy for renewables in order to "be a world leader in this sector" and on promoting the EU Emissions Trading System "to ensure that we reach our climate goals in a cost-effective way". Furthermore, he would like Alenka Bratušek, the designated Vice-President for Energy Union, to focus on "completing the internal energy market" and on "increasing competition"(F. Genovese, Ch, Egenhofer, 2014). At the beginning of the year (2014), Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said that the European Union wanted strong and stable partnerships with important suppliers such as Russia, but that it must avoid "falling victim to political and commercial blackmail". He also said that the EU needed to complete the internal energy market, improve the energy infrastructure, become more energy efficient, and better at exploiting its own energy resources. Moreover, the Union needs to accelerate the diversification of external energy suppliers, espe...

Progress of the V4 Countries towards the EU’s Energy and Climate Targets in the Context of Energy Security Improvement

“…The main motif of the debate on the security of the V4 countries is their dependence on the import of crude oil and gas from Russia, a subject which has been extensively studied by Kovács et al (2011). The studies carried out so far in the context of the challenges connected with the energy security of the V4 countries, concentrated first of all on the bottlenecks in energy infrastructure and infrastructure projects in the region (Siddi, 2016). Such a vision of energy security is definitely caused by the gas crises between Russia and Ukraine from 2006 and 2009, during which the V4 countries suffered a lot.…”

From a liberal to a strategic actor: the evolution of the EU’s approach to international energy governance

“…The EU was confronted with the fact that its main external energy supplier was acting as a geopolitical competitor in Eastern Europe. The 2014 EU Energy Security Strategy and the plans to create an Energy Union were primarily a response to the Ukraine crisis and reinforced the securitizing trend in EU energy policy (Siddi, 2016). According to Boersma and Goldthau (2017, p. 106) 'the Energy Union proposals represent a shift in the Commission's agenda to the effect that for the first time, a strategic document outlining the EU's comprehensive energy policy prioritizes security'.…”

“…Eastern European member states with negative identity-based conceptualisations of Russia are also the most critical of the Union's energy relationship with Moscow and have advocated greater intervention in energy markets in order to refocus EU energy imports away from Russia (Goldthau & Sitter, 2020, p. 116). As energy policy is an area of shared competence between member states and the EU, the European Commission has had to consider and reconcile different national views (Siddi, 2016;Szulecki et al, 2016).…”

A Big Data View of the European Energy Union: Shifting from ‘a Floating Signifier’ to an Active Driver of Decarbonisation?

“…He outlined the first strategies of the Energy Union to be a response to concerns about energy security in Europe following the Ukrainian crisis. However, with the Juncker Commission in charge, the Western European states became the decisive actors behind the Energy Union, and the project was geared towards questions of market integration and clean energy ambitions (Siddi, 2016). The Energy Union was designed to contain five 'closely related and mutually reinforcing dimensions': (1) energy security, solidarity and trust; (2) a fully integrated European energy market; (3) energy efficiency contributing to moderation of demand; (4) decarbonising the economy; and…”

“…A block of member states has viewed efficiency questions as being at odds with affordability, especially as over 70 per cent of the existing building stock remains highly inefficient and, thus, costly to upgrade (Ringel & Knodt, 2018). As a result of this controversy, energy efficiency was even omitted from the agenda of some of the meetings surrounding the launch of the Energy Union (Siddi, 2016). Another major challenge has to do with promoting decarbonisation objectives.…”