Pipelines diplomacy : EU's search for alternatives to the Russian gas

Abstract

At the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the 21st century the European Union (EU) is facing an increase in the natural gas consumption, while the domestic production is slowly depleting, thus the reliance on foreign imports is reaching strategic levels. Furthermore, the environmental challenges that the Union has to meet have speeded up the switch from a carbon based economy to a more "friendly" fuel which is the natural gas. Traditionally, the most important natural gas supplier for the EU member states is Russia, although Algeria and the North Sea share a significant percentage of the market. Consequently, throughout the years, the RU-Russia energy cooperation has evolved in a cooperative manner until the recent disputes between Kremlin and the government in Kiev from 2006 and 2009 that has jeopardized both countries reliability as a supplier country and, respectively, as a secure transit country. Both events have emphasized the EU vulnerability towards its most important supplier of natural gas and, moreover, have raised discussions regarding the need to diversify the import routes, but also the countries involved in the business.