EU and Ukraine – state of affairs in energy security
EU and Ukraine – state of affairs in energy security

Author(s): Samuel Goda
Subject(s): Politics, Economic policy, Environmental and Energy policy, International relations/trade, EU-Approach / EU-Accession / EU-Development
Published by: Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA)
Keywords: EU; Ukraine; economy; energy; security; status;
Summary/Abstract: At the outset of this study we will shortly explain the theoretical approaches dealing with energy security as phenomena, focusing mainly on the political science and international relations scholarship. Further we will analyze the new European energy security architecture with particular focus on natural gas. This is in order to show current and future trends from the EU perspective. Third part will deal with Ukraine and its position within this broader European architecture. The main aims of this paper are to shortly provide an introduction to particular aspects and definitions of energy security; introduce the current state of affairs of the new European energy security architecture and analyze the position of Ukraine in this framework. It is obvious that a consensus on the importance of energy in general - in its many different forms exists throughout the meanings of all relevant actors including practitioners and researchers. Since the energy shocks in 1970´s, the term of energy, or more precisely security of energy supply, has gained more attention as “present asymmetries between the geographical distribution of resources and energy consumers had been consolidated by oil shortages in the petroleum-dependent countries” . Energy security thus evolved into a frequent term in different research areas from technical fields up to social sciences and humanities. Ukraine finds itself in very complicated situation both in regards to internal politics and external influence. Moreover, Ukraine does not possess large amounts of own energy sources – in particular oil. In this case the biggest trading partner is Russian federation which is absolutely aware about this situation and uses its position with an aim to win own geopolitical aspiration. However, it is not only the external factor as the Ukrainian political elites and business often concentrate on own benefits and tend to ignore national security interests.

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