European Energy Security

Flying largely under the radar, progress on the TurkStream pipeline has been met with little attention. This is quite unjust, as the project is a key piece of Gazprom’s future supply strategy.

Discussions on energy and geopolitics over the last ten years have often focused on the need for energy security. Now, another challenge—climate security—is emerging and it must be urgently addressed.

Some Nord Stream 2 proponents invoke the Ostpolitik of the late Cold War, which involved West German cooperation with Moscow on Russian energy exports to Western Europe. But this time around, Europe does not need additional Russian gas volumes and its position is in opposition to the views of most of Eastern Europe. From this perspective, Nord Stream 2 is flawed Ostpolitik.

Transatlantic cooperation with a focus on energy security will be essential to addressing global challenges and should be prioritized by US and EU leadership, since energy security translates into national, political, and economic security on both sides of the Atlantic.

The European Union’s efforts to achieve a carbon-neutral economy present a unique and timely opportunity to strengthen European energy security. What is the EU currently doing to meet its decarbonization goals, address the role of natural gas in Europe’s low-carbon future, and explain the potential for new gas sources, alternative gas routes, and clean energy technologies to reduce carbon emissions? And how can this be done while simultaneously increasing European energy security and opportunities for transatlantic cooperation?

These projects, the BRUA pipeline, the Trans Adriatic pipeline, the Ionian Adriatic Pipeline, the Krk Island FSRU project, and gasification efforts in Southeast Europe, and broader support and financing for such projects is crucial, but there are also challenges in terms of which projects receive priority and how they might complement or compete with one another.