scholarly journals DEVELOPMENT OF THE EXTERNAL ENERGY POLICY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Author(s):  
N. Y. Kaveshnikov

The article analyses development of external energy policy of the European Union (EU). In spite of the Lisbon treaty didn’t substantially expend EU powers in external energy policy, European Commission (EC) became more active in recent years. Decision on exchange of information about bilateral energy agreements between Member States (MSs) and third countries may deprive producers of opportunity to differentiate terms of infrastructure projects and energy supply in different MSs. European Commission participation in MSs negotiations with third countries as a guardian of energy market provisions will inevitably increase negotiation power of MSs. Nevertheless, only smooth and modest extension of powers of the EC would be possible because of opposition of numerous countries which makes a search of consensus very difficult. Among priority activities of the EU external energy policy one could identify ‘export’ of energy market provisions in neighbor countries; diversification of suppliers and prioritization of politically selected supply routes; dramatic increase of regulatory activity at EU level. All these activities are partially successful, but they all have some shortages. Several EU legislative and regulatory measures risk to run counter to existing obligations of MSs.

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (5) ◽  
pp. 39-48
Author(s):  
O. Yudina

Received 08.05.2020. Energy has always been of particular importance to the European Union. Meanwhile, up to the beginning of the 21st century, this area had been in exclusive competence of member states, with timid attempts of the European Commission (EC) to receive part of the powers in the energy sphere. The article is devoted to the issues of the EU common external energy policy development that was accompanied by a dichotomy of interests between the member-states, which hardly like the idea of the energy sector communitarisation, and the European Commission, which has been the main driver of supranationalisation of the energy sphere for a long period of time. The author characterizes the main achievements towards the EU common external energy policy, including the law regarding the export of energy to neighboring non-member countries through various organizations, such as the Energy Community, the Eastern Partnership, MEDREG, and launching of the European Energy Union (EEU) in 2015. Special attention is paid to external factors that facilitated the enhancement of the European Commission’s role in the energy sphere. The new era for the EU common external energy policy started in 2015 with the EEU and energy security as one of its priority, partly due to the gas crises and political tension between the European Union and Russia. It is noted that the EEU has facilitated the adoption of some EC’s legal proposals that could not be adopted for a long time, such as the mechanism of consultations on new intergovernmental contracts. In general, the creation of the Energy Union should certainly be seen as strengthening the supranational energy competences of the European Commission. It is concluded that the European Commission has made a significant progress towards a common external energy policy, strongly supported by the public opinion that the European Union should speak one voice with third countries. Despite the lack of legally supported competencies in energy for the EC, it gained authority in different directions of the EU energy policy development. Under these circumstances, the common energy market that has led to energy interdependent of the member states, forces them to cooperate at a supranational level. The author argues that third countries should clearly understand the dynamic and processes of communitarisation of the energy sphere and adopt their cooperation with the European Union based on this knowledge.


Author(s):  
I. Pashkovskaya

Motivation of the energy policy of the European Union towards Russia is driven by two factors. The first is the dependence of the EU on obtaining most of its energy supplies from Russia. The second factor consists of two fears (one spurious and another hypothetical) that Russia won’t deliver necessary volumes of energy to the European domestic energy market. Strange enough, these fears co-exist with the EU repeatedly confirming the fact of Russia compliance with its commitments of energy supply to the EU member states.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-239
Author(s):  
Ana-Maria Iulia Şanta

Abstract The European Union develops a new energy policy as an answer to the challenges of climate change which is a global issue affecting all of us. The package “Clean Energy for All Europeans” adopted by the European Commission in 2016, contains instruments for a new energy policy at the level of the European Union, based on an Energy Union, on promoting energy efficiency and the use of Clean Energy. These are the first steps in creating an institutional and legal framework for a common energy market of the European Union. This way the Internal Market of the European Union would be completed by a common energy market and the result would be a consolidated European Union. This is the research hypothesis the present paper is dealing with. It analyzes as well the impact of the new energy policies on the business environment in terms of new innovative business models at European Union level. The research is based on an interdisciplinary approach considering aspects of European policy, European law, business and economics. Qualitative research methods, such as the analysis of European regulations and provisions representing the basis for a harmonized framework in the energy sector at European Union level and case studies from European Union Member States will be applied. Relevant indicators provided by the European Commission and by Eurostat statistics analyzed in the present paper will complete this assessment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 190-199
Author(s):  
Olga Yudina ◽  

The article analyzes the results of the EU Energy Union activities from 2015 to 2019 and its contribution to the shaping of the European Union common energy policy. The significance of the activities of the EU Energy Union in promoting a common energy policy is considered in three dimensions: external, internal and in the field of establishing a management system. The author notes a huge increase in the influence of the European Commission on the formation of EU common energy policy, the existence of contradictions between the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty and the actual powers of the European Commission in terms of energy, as well as the continuing dichotomy among the EU member states on the issue of energy communitarisation. It is indicated that the establishment of a clear and predictable management system for the EU Energy Union made a significant contribution to the strengthening of European Commission‟s energy authority. Concluding that the European Commission is doing its best in the formation of a common external energy policy, the author draws attention to the potential internal and external difficulties that the European Commission faces in pursuing a policy aimed at strengthening its powers in the energy field.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-122
Author(s):  
Ewa Kaczan-Winiarska

The Austrian government is extremely sceptical about the accession negotiations which are conducted by the European Commission on behalf of the European Union with Turkey and calls for the negotiation process to end. Serious reservations of Vienna have been raised by the current political situation in Turkey under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as by the standards of democracy in Turkey, which differ greatly from European standards. Serious deficiencies in rule of law, freedom of speech and independence of the judiciary, confirmed in the latest European Commission report on Turkey, do not justify, from Vienna’s point of view, the continuation of talks with Ankara on EU membership. In fact, Austria’s scepticism about the European perspective for Turkey has a longer tradition. This was marked previously in 2005 when the accession negotiations began. Until now, Austria’s position has not had enough clout within the European arena. Pragmatic cooperation with Turkey as a strategic partner of the EU, both in the context of the migration crisis and security policy, proved to be a key factor. The question is whether Austria, which took over the EU presidency from 1.7.2018, will be able to more strongly accentuate its reservations about Turkey and even build an alliance of Member States strong enough to block Turkey’s accession process.


Author(s):  
Almas Heshmati ◽  
Shahrouz Abolhosseini

This chapter reviews relevant literature on the current state and effectiveness of developing renewable energy on energy security in general, and on energy security in the European Union (EU) in particular. The chapter elaborates on primary energy import sources, possible alternatives, and how energy security is affected by the sources of supply. It also gives an analysis of the effects of the Ukrainian crisis, the isolation of Iran on diversification sources, and on European energy security. It examines EU’s energy policy, analyses the best motivation for a new energy policy direction within Europe, and suggests alternative solutions for enhanced energy supply security. The aim is to suggest suitable solutions for energy security in Europe through energy supply diversification. Supply diversification includes alternative energy corridors for reducing dependency on Russia as a supplier and enhancing the power generated by renewable energy sources under the European Union 2020 strategy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
Eva Eckert ◽  
Oleksandra Kovalevska

In the European Union, the concern for sustainability has been legitimized by its politically and ecologically motivated discourse disseminated through recent policies of the European Commission and the local as well as international media. In the article, we question the very meaning of sustainability and examine the European Green Deal, the major political document issued by the EC in 2019. The main question pursued in the study is whether expectations verbalized in the Green Deal’s plans, programs, strategies, and developments hold up to the scrutiny of critical discourse analysis. We compare the Green Deal’s treatment of sustainability to how sustainability is presented in environmental and social science scholarship and point out that research, on the one hand, and the politically motivated discourse, on the other, do not correlate and often actually contradict each other. We conclude that sustainability discourse and its keywords, lexicon, and phraseology have become a channel through which political institutions in the EU such as the European Commission sideline crucial environmental issues and endorse their own presence. The Green Deal discourse shapes political and institutional power of the Commission and the EU.


Author(s):  
Ana-Maria Iulia Şanta

Abstract The European Commission has the initiative to foster the sector of renewable energy and to build an Energy Union, with a common energy market at the level of the European Union, but is this only an utopic vision or is this possible to achieve? The topic of clean energy is very new and of great interest for the European Union, which is shown by the fact that the European Commission recently adopted on the 30th November 2016 the package “Clean Energy for All Europeans”, which contains proposals for the modernization of the energy market at the level of the European Union. But which are the challenges such a project is confronted with? According to the literature, such challenges are related to the process of liberalization of electricity markets. Conflicts between national interest and international actors of the energy market might occur. Due to the oligopolistic structure of the energy market, there are several barriers to the market entry. In order to answer to the research questions, case studies regarding the liberalization of the energy market will be analyzed in a comparative manner, offering an international overview. Furthermore, the legal provisions on which the common energy policy of the European Union relies, will be analyzed, as well as their economic and social impact. The package “Clean Energy for All Europeans” comprises a proposal of the revised Renewable energy Directive, energy efficiency measures and issues related to the Energy Union Governance. It contains as well proposals for the electricity market design, which will be analyzed and the present paper outlines the contribution of this proposal in building a common energy market of the European Union. What role does competition play in implementing the common energy market of the European Union? Which role do competition authorities have in this context? These are interesting aspects to be analyzed in the present paper.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (11) ◽  
pp. 167-173
Author(s):  
Mihail V. Rybin ◽  
◽  
Alexander A. Stepanov ◽  
Nadezhda V. Morozova ◽  
◽  
...  

The article reveals and analyzes conceptual approaches to the formation of strategic directions of energy policy of the European Union and Poland in the first decades of the XXI century. A critical assess-ment is given from the point of view of international cooperation in the field of energy between the Russian Federation, Poland and the EU as a whole and, in particular, European, national and regional programs for the transformation of the fuel and energy sector in the conditions of decarbonization and transition to green energy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilaria Espa ◽  
Kateryna Holzer

Abstract In the context of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the European Union (EU) has taken the lead in promoting the inclusion of a specific chapter on energy trade and investment in order to enhance energy security and promote renewable energy. Irrespective of the success of the TTIP negotiations, the EU proposal can contribute to developing multilateral rules on energy trade and investment. This is especially important given the increased number of energy disputes filed by the EU and the United States against other leading energy market players, including the BRICS. This article provides a normative analysis of the new rules proposed by the EU and reflects on potential responses of BRICS energy regulators. It argues that, while these rules are unlikely to immediately affect BRICS energy practices, they may eventually be ‘imported’ in BRICS domestic jurisdictions in order to promote renewable energy and attract investment in energy infrastructure.


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