The EU needs a Common Energy Policy - not Separate Solutions by its Member States - (Part I)

The present article aims to emphasize the reasons that led to the conclusion that European Union needs a common energy policy, in order to face the challenges of the present. In the first part of the article is being debated the problem of building the Nord Stream pipeline. Also, the first part of the article is developing 3 of the main reasons that make the common energy policy a necessity within European states. The second part of the article emphasizes another two strong reasons and also draws a conclusion regarding the same stringent necessity.energy; policy; European Union; Russia; pipeline.

Great expectations: The EU's social role as a great power manager

Through the case of EU foreign and security policy we reconsider the concept of great power. According to common wisdom, the EU cannot be a great power, whatever the pronouncements of its top officials may be. We argue that ‘great power’ has been miscast in IR theory as a status rather than as a social role, and, consequently, that the EU can indeed be viewed as playing the great power role. Such a conceptual shift moves analytical attention away from questions of what the EU is ‘big’, ‘small’, ‘great’, and so on to what it is expected to do in international politics. We focus on the expectation that great powers engage in the management of the international system, assessing the EU as a great power manager in two senses: First, in the classical sense of ‘great power management’ of Hedley Bull which centers on great powers’ creation of regional spheres of influence and the maintenance of the general balance of power and second, in light of recent corrections to Bull’s approach by Alexander Astrov and others, who suggest great power management has changed toward a logic of governmentality, i.e. ‘conducting the conduct’ of lesser states

The Evolution of EU policy towards its CIS neighbours

When the EU began to plan enlargement, it was important to define and establish a new relationship with the successor states to the Soviet Union. This paper traces the evolution of the EU's policy towards those successor states from 1991 until the present. In the 1990s the EU tended to treat the post-Soviet states as if they were homogenous and policy was concentrated primarily on Russia. From 2000 onwards, a more differentiated policy was adopted, particularly once the European Neighbourhood Policy was launched. However, because of Russia's energy resources on which the EU was dependent, and because the EU's neighbourhood was also Russia's neighbourhood and Russian policy makers increasingly resented EU intervention into an area which they considered a vital sphere of Russia's interests, Russia still tended to dominate the attention of the EU.EU-CIS relations, EU-Russian relations, TACIS, European Neighbourhood Policy, EU and Central Asia

EU-Russia energy diplomacy: The need for an active strategic partnership. EU Diplomacy Paper 4/2012, July 2012

This paper explains the conflictive and cooperative elements of energy diplomacy between the European Union (EU) and Russia. It argues that interdependence forms the underlying principle of this relationship and creates both sensitivity and vulnerability for the interdependent parties, thus carrying the sperms of both conflict and cooperation. Both sides would be negatively affected by the other side’s noncooperation within the current policy framework and the prevailing mistrust and recurring tensions can be explained by this sensitivity. However, even if both sides’ policies were adjusted, vulnerability interdependence would still prevent them from seriously reducing their energy cooperation. It is necessary then to see how EU and Russian energy diplomacy can converge and how their strategic energy partnership can be cemented