The War in Ukraine and the Overhaul of EU Energy Security

ABSTRACT

In the last years EU energy policy was strongly affected by a mix of challenges starting with the Paris Agreement and the European Green Deal ambitious targets, followed by the outburst of COVID-19 pandemic and lastly by the war in Ukraine. An European Energy Security Strategy was adopted din 2014 based on eight key pillars, followed by Energy Union strategy, adopted in February 2015, built on five closely related and mutually reinforcing dimensions, the first one being energy security, solidarity and trust. Over the past years Energy Union was the subject of six regular progress reports, the last two ones in October 2020 and October 2021, where more attention was paid to energy safety and to the fourth dimension-decarbonising the economy. Due to the energy market liberalization, to energy transition and also to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic an energy crisis burst in EU in 2021, affecting mainly the natural gas and electricity prices and markets. Russia's invasion in Ukraine led to skyrocketed prices of oil and natural gas while revealing the high dependence of EU on fossil fuels imports from Russia. Our paper aims to investigate if the rounds of sanctions can reduce this dependency while finding new sources of supply - a task that is very difficult since the global supply of LNG, coal and oil is quite limited or insufficient. Our research also highlight that there is an urgent need for a new strategic vision at EU and national level to ensure energy security and protect the environment.