Consolidating EU energy security by relying on energy de-politicisation

ABSTRACT

Aiming to protect energy security, the European Union (EU) has sought to persuade third states to accept its energy acquis, relying on a formed strategic narrative. However, the coherency of this strategic narrative, as the prerequisite for being well-received, has not been studied before. Considering the strategic narrative theory and applying the content analysis method, our research has indicated that the EU’s narrative consists of five storylines, including geopolitics, the single energy market, and climate change, the last two of which have become increasingly accentuated over time. However, this strategic narrative suffers from two significant incoherencies, which lie between its storylines and also within the storyline. The results of our analyses indicate that both incoherencies originate from the securitisation of energy in the Union. This means that the effectiveness of the narrative formulated has been diminished, which is detrimental even to the EU’s climate policy. This could suggest that de-politicisation of energy is required to reinforce the narrative and enable the EU to address the world with one voice.

KEYWORDS:

• Energy security
• EU common security and foreign policy
• energy acquis
• strategic narrative
• single energy market

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 OPAL is the extension of Nord Stream I, arriving in Germany’s territory. Gazprom could utilise 50% of its capacity due to third-party access regulations. The Commission accepted Gazprom’s request for full access under particular circumstances. However, Poland has been appealing against the decision. For more details, see Yafimava (2017).