The European Union's Politics of Energy

Bc. Pim Plekker, B.A.

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Energy sources like oil and gas are depleting. In the nearby future the demand for energy will only rise further. Cheap “Energy” is the fundament of a healthy economical society. Without cheap energy everything will become more expenses. The fact that “energy” is important for a country’s economy makes it not difficult to predict that having a stable energy source is of the highest importance. It can be said that due to the fact that the European Union is depending on imported energy it is vulnerable. States who supply energy could misuse there dominant position as supplier of energy by using this as a political tool to manipulate the political decision-making process of the European Union. The Russian - Ukraine conflict, where Russia shut down her gas-export to the Ukraine, and because of that, parts of Europe had to deal with a minor disruption as well, can be seen as an example how Russia uses her dominant status as gas supplier in order to manipulate foreign decision-making. It shows how the energy topic becomes more and more a political subject. In light of this background I would like to ask the following question: “How does the European Union conduct her internal and foreign energy policy in terms of energy security?” This thesis question will analyze the current and future policies of the European Union concerning energy security.

Keywords

energy Security, European Union, energy policy, energetická bezpečnost, Evropská Unie, energetická politika

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 18. 12. 2007

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 21. 1. 2008
• Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Břetislav Dančák, Ph.D.
• Reader: PhDr. Zdeněk Sychra, Ph.D.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Social Studies

Master programme / field:
Political Science / European Politics (Eng.)