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Energy Security in the European Union



Author(s)

Laura Rodríguez-Fernández and Rosa María Fernández-Martín

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DOI:10.17265/1934-8975/2012.03.008

Department of Applied Economics, Spanish Open University (UNED), Madrid 28040, Spain

According to the European Commission, the three challenges that Europe must face related to energy are sustainability, security of supply and reaching an effective competitiveness in the internal energy market. To meet these three challenges, the Commission deems necessary to implement a common energy policy. To this end, it proposed an action plan based on the effective creation of an internal energy market, the solidarity between Member States and security of supply for oil, gas and electricity. Therefore, energy security is one of the main concerns, and so one of the priorities, of the new European energy policy proposed by the Commission. This paper tries to show that even though energy has been on the basis of what we call today European Union, it has been extremely complicated to get a common energy policy. Bearing this in mind, energy security has been one of the main areas of consensus that has led EU to the mentioned Commission proposal, and we can see now the first steps of the so much wanted common energy policy.

Energy, energy policy, European Union, energy security, security of supply.