Common Rules without Strategy: EU Energy Policy and Russia

The European Union’s (EU’s) energy policy toward Russia—or, to put it more precisely—the absence of a coherent policy, is a hotly debated topic in academic and policy circles. The overall message is clear and has been reiterated for many years: As long as the EU does not act in a (vertically) coherent way it cannot be externally effective. But coherence would require that Member States limit their individual sovereignty over decisions for the sake of a greater autonomy at the community level. This has proven to be especially problematic with regard to energy policy, which may be regarded as a domain of “high politics” in external relations and is subject to politicized debates internally as well. Historically, energy policy has been regarded as a national prerogative, strongly linked with national security and public service. Also, a common external policy needs an agreement on what it is about: Should energy policy toward Russia concentrate mainly on maintaining energy security or should it be seen as the core of the overall foreign policy toward Russia? As energy is an important aspect both for the EU and Russia, a conflation between external energy policy and foreign policy in general can easily occur. This makes it even harder to arrive at a common position, as there are far more possible objectives in general foreign policy than in energy policy. In addition, foreign energy policy does not only involve state actors, but also big economic actors that control the economic processes underlying energy policy.