Energy Security in the EU: Pipelines, Powers, and Political Relations
The Many Faces of Energy Security
The term “energy security,” despite its pessimistic applications and loose definitions, is profligately used in policy circles and academic fields. Limiting disruptions of supply to broader definitions, which have political, economic, and/or environmental bearing, is common of energy security treatments. According to the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, it is taken as a country’s ability to ensure that the “risks of interruption to energy supply, are low.”
Three dimensions of energy security should be underscored: physical security, price security, and geopolitical security. Optimum energy security is achieved by avoiding physical interruptions, “unnecessary price spikes due to supply/demand imbalances or poor market operation” and “undue reliance on specific nations so as to maintain maximum degrees of freedom in foreign policy.” While some cover energy security from the perspective of the consumer, the significance of energydependence on supply-countries still tends to receive less coverage in the media.
The term frequently emerges within the geopolitical discourse of Europe and the European Union (EU), and the EU polity’s relationship with the Russian Federation. Energy security is a salient issue as it regards the geopolitical context of southeast Europe and the Black Sea region. Ukraine receives considerable attention because of its position between Russian and particular member states of the EU, making it a transit country – and one perceived with increasing unreliability as it provides Russia with its monopoly over supplies to much of the European market.
States and Energy
In early 2015, Gazprom head Alexei Miller announced that EU gas transit via Ukraine would be cut. South Stream was brought to a close by the EU Commission due to non-compliance with the EU’s energy laws.
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