Taking Security Seriously in EU Energy Governance: Crimean Shock and the Energy Union

Abstract

This chapter provides a very broad overview of different energy policy and energy security issues that Europe faces, and those for which it needs to prepare itself for in the future. It asks whether EU energy governance has gained a new sense of direction since the Ukraine Crises erupted. We argue that the crisis was a bombshell moment for European energy governance, but it is yet to be seen whether that challenge has been turned into opportunity or, to the contrary, we will see a deepening of the existing rifts and further fragmentation. To provide the context for answering these questions and for the remainder of the book, we sketch the increasingly fluid geopolitical environment and the global challenges, which European energy policy has to address: shifting demand, climate change, the problem of energy access and changing global energy governance architecture. We then turn to internal hindrances of effective external energy policy, highlighting a split over economic efficiency, divergent climate policy ambitions, and the tension between market-oriented and statist energy policy approaches. The chapter concludes with a strong argument for streamlining energy and climate policy, as well as energy sustainability and security, in a longer-term EU energy strategy framework that seems to be emerging. We also emphasise the need for an approach to energy security moving beyond supply security.