Energy Security – European Perspective and Policy Challenges

Abstract

The European Union’s approach towards energy security can be derived from several policy legislations and proposals that followed the European Commission’s 2000 Green Paper “Towards a European Strategy for the Security of Energy Supply”. A central element of the European energy policy is the will to fundamentally change its energy system to a low carbon economy, with the explicit goal of breaking “the cycle of increasing energy consumption, increasing imports, and increasing outflow of wealth created in the EU to pay energy producers” (COM (2008)781). Key elements to reach the three underlying objectives of EU’s new energy and environment policy are the idea of energy security as an issue of common EU concern and further integration of energy markets.