During the 2000s, the Russian government has numerously demonstrated that the energy sector, constituting one of the central pillars of its national economy, also became its key instrument of external political manipulations. The events of 2021, among many other examples, displayed the same tendency when in order to force EU institutions and the member states to reach a political consensus regarding the need for rapid certification of the Nord Stream-2 transmission system operator (based on the German regulator's respective decision with the following approval of the European Commission) Gazprom significantly cut down the volumes of gas imports flowing through such traditional Eastern and Central European routes of gas supplies as Brotherhood and Yamal pipelines [1, p. 3, 13-14]. Thus, against the backdrop of the EU's dependency on oil and natural gas supplies and the level of influence Russian political machinery had on European elites, the major energy turbulence in Europe since the 1973 oil shock that emerged in 2022 has seemed by many as something "fatally" inevitable [2; 3, p. 5-6; 4, p. 180].
However, it would be inaccurate to say that the EU was entirely unprepared for such a turn of events. In the most general way, the efforts of the European Union directly or indirectly contributing to the energy security of its member states encompass several lines of action:
a) market liberalisation segment aiming at the gradual opening of originally monopolised natural gas and electricity markets of the member states to the competition and ensuring integration between them for the introduction of the reliable and barrier-free internal energy market;
b) security sensu stricto segment that covers activities aimed at preventing and reacting to disruptions of supplies of electricity and natural gas within the EU energy market as well as supranational instruments establishing obligations for the member states to maintain minimum stocks of crude oil and petroleum products;
c) environmentally oriented initiatives with the purpose of ensuring rapid and comprehensive deployment and integration of new and renewable energy technologies into systems predominately based on conventional energy sources while providing high levels of energy efficiency;
d) EU/Euratom instruments covering measures to guarantee the implementation of high standards of nuclear safety throughout the EU.
To bridge energy-related interests between the European states and contribute to gradual regulatory convergence between them, the EU also "exports" its legal standards to its neighbours under international agreements and through such "institutionalised" models of field-specific cooperation as the Energy Community (e.g., art. 3 of the Treaty Establishing the Energy Community [5]).
Consequently, while it is indisputable that to prevent severe disruptions in the internal market, the EU, together with its member states, must diversify the sources and routes of its energy supplies, including further development of its LNG infrastructure, as well as implement efforts for the deployment of renewables and energy saving technologies, other EU-specific instruments complementing mentioned measures must be taken into account.
This primarily concerns the need to develop internal electricity and natural gas markets based on the energy transition paradigm with an emphasis on democratisation, decentralisation, and transparency. From this perspective, the European Commission and the member states must ensure full implementation of the "fourth" energy package ("Clean energy for all Europeans" package) [6], which aims at further decentralisation of the gas and electricity energy markets by the enlargement of the number of active market participants, including mechanisms of improving the effectiveness of demand management by private consumers, engagement of citizen energy communities and renewable energy communities in producing, sharing and consuming energy, new progressive market-based instruments for the support of renewable energy producers, etc.
Additional measures need to be implemented to reinforce energy solidarity mechanisms, encompassing solidarity instruments between the member states and between the member states and the institutions of the EU based on art. 122 and 194 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [7] in line with the concept of solidarity articulated by the European Court of Justice in the "Opal saga" [8; 9] and the cooperation paradigm reflected in Council Regulation (EU) 2022/2576 [10]. After all, the ability to think above purely national interests is the feature that predetermines the EU's unique nature right from the inception of the Communities and its success, which has inspired other regions to use the same logic of cooperation to build their own integration projects.
At the same time, further efforts need to be implemented to strengthen solidarity in relations of the Union with the third states, primarily its neighbours. This, among other possible initiatives, covers the mechanisms and security-related instruments of cooperation between the Energy Community members. Furthermore, taking into account bilateral international agreements concluded by the EU with its partners (e.g., art. 338 of the Association Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Ukraine, of the other part [11]) and enshrined in art. 216(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union general obligation of the Union institutions and member states to comply with obligations arising from the agreements of the Union, the principle of solidarity also covers decisions of the Union and its member states that might adversely affect political and economic interests of its partners.
Sources:
1. Quarterly report on European gas markets with focus on 2021, an extraordinary year on the European and global gas markets. Directorate-General for Energy. Unit A.4. Market Observatory for Energy. 2022. URL: https://energy.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2022-04/Quarterly%20report%20on%20European%20gas%20markets_Q4%202021.pdf
2. Peeters, T. The EU Energy Dependency on Russia and Historic Opportunity for Independence. March 17, 2022. URL: https://behorizon.org/the-eu-energy-dependency-on-russia-and-historic-opportunity-for-independence/
3. Di Bella, G., & others. Natural Gas in Europe: The Potential Impact of Disruptions to Supply. International Monetary Fund. WP/22/145. July 2022. URL: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2022/07/18/Natural-Gas-in-Europe-The-Potential-Impact-of-Disruptions-to-Supply-520934
4. Yakoviuk, I., Maksym, T. Energy Security of the European Union in the Context of Russian Aggression against Ukraine. Problems of Legality. 2023. No. 160. P. 170-191. URL: http://plaw.nlu.edu.ua/article/view/274518
5. Treaty establishing the Energy Community, 25 October 2005. URL: https://www.energy-community.org/legal/treaty.html
6. Clean Energy for All Europeans. European Commission, Directorate-General for Energy. Publications Office. 2019. URL: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/b4e46873-7528-11e9-9f05-01aa75ed71a1/language-en?WT.mc_id=Searchresult&WT.ria_c=null&WT.ria_f=3608&WT.ria_ev=search
7. Consolidated version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Official Journal of the European Union. C 326. 26.10.2012. P. 47-390.
8. Case T-883/16 Poland v Commission. Judgment of the General Court of 10 September 2019. European Court Digital Reports. URL: https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=217543&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=698228
9. Case C-848/19 P Germany v Poland. Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 15 July 2021. European Court Digital Reports. URL: https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=244187&pageIndex= 0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=704959
10. Regulation (EU) 2022/2576 enhancing solidarity through better coordination of gas purchases, reliable price benchmarks and exchanges of gas across borders. Official Journal of the European Union. L 335. 29.12.2022. P. 1-35.
11. Association Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Ukraine, of the other part. Official Journal of the European Union. L 161. 29.05.2014. P. 3-2137.
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