School of Politics and International Studies

The Concept of Energy Security: Implications of EU-Russia Energy Relations

The main purpose of my research is to investigate differences in the energy policies of EU member states to energy security at the EU and national levels. The research is focused on the study of European levels of gas dependence and therefore vulnerability/sensitivity to Russian energy supplies among different members, and will analyse European perceptions of Russia as a threat to energy security, with a focus on the case studies of Germany, Poland and the UK.

EU-Russia energy interactions have been fluctuating between the stages of energy confrontations and ‘strategic cooperation’ for the last decade. These complex relations illustrate the tension that generally exists between wider EU values and principles (open market, liberalisation, free competition and solidarity) and the self-interest of each country. Most of the EU-27 members, being energy dependent, have very limited internal resources are forced to buy energy elsewhere. Russia, being the major gas supplier to the EU, despite its attempts to secure stable and continuous energy supplies to Europe, often fails to maintain positive energy policy relationships with the Union.

The cornerstone of their mutual problems is in the unpredictability of the growth of the global energy market, in energy flow disruptions to the EU, Russia’s non-ratification position of the Energy Charter Treaty and its supplementary Protocols and the way in which Russia pursues gas pipeline politics. Problems in the EU-Russia energy security domain are also aggravated by the heterogeneous composition of the Union. The EU-27 has tried to create a coherent common external energy policy in order to tackle mutual problems with energy suppliers and other partners. However, European countries still experience problems with asymmetrical gas dependence on Russia due to the variation in their economic and geo-political positions, their degree of market liberalisation and their complex government-business ties, which trigger distrust among member states, and heighten their sense of vulnerability. As the research is primarily interested in how European states define, shape and justify their energy behaviour it deploys a constructivist framework.