Basis of the energy security strategy of the European Union: the relevance of the Mediterranean neighbourhood.

Abstract

Beginning with the year 2000, in a context of rising global energy demand; geopolitical competition for energy resources, persistent instability in energy producing regions; escalating energy prices; and binding targets to tackle climate change objetives, the EU raised concern about its increasing energy dependence, especially on external gas supplies from Russia. The deep transformations in the energy global landscape, led the EU to set out a process of evaluation, conceptualization and formulation of an European Energy Security Strategy to guarantee the energy security supply, through the implementation of different tools and mechanism such as the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP), a main pillar of the EU foreign policy since 2004. The Ukranian gas crisis of 2006 and 2009 raised awareness of the necessity to establish a pragmatic and effective EU's external energy policy where diversification of supply sources and routes, as well as partnerships with suppliers and transit countries, especiallly in the Mediterranean neighborhood, would become a geopolitical and geo-economic priority. This chapter seeks to analyze the configuration of the EU energy security strategy to demonstrate that security of supply and diversification of energy sources and routes, especially in the Mediterranean neighborhood space, play a significant geopolitical role in the shaping of the EU's external energy policy.