Three documents issued by the European Commission on 25 February 2015 aim to advance work on the Energy Union, a project figuring prominently on the Juncker Commission’s agenda. It is hoped that the proposed actions will help diversify Europe’s energy sources and turn the EU from the world’s largest energy importer to the world’s leader in renewable energy production.
Stable energy prices and a smooth supply of gas are a priority for Europeans, according to a special EU opinion poll on climate change held last year. The European Commission under its current president, Jean-Claude Juncker, seems to have heeded the concerns of Europeans and crafted a grand plan to form an energy union that would reduce dependency on Russian gas while fighting climate change. The energy union focuses on five different areas, also called dimensions, but the first one, security of supply, is by far the one that weighs more heavily in terms of EU’s foreign policy. It basically aims at reducing the dependence on imports.
The EU central institutions seem to be stuck to what 19th Century Europe identified as “mission civilisatrice”, fuelled by an underlying sense of self-righteousness and superiority vis-à-vis others, while individual member states continue to pursue their narrow but concrete geopolitical and economic interests, which go in different directions. It should come as no surprise that EU members are steadily losing ground on the charts of state power and influence in the world, overtaken by more dynamic, emerging powers. Of course, with its ambition, innovation and flexibility the US remains steadily at the top, as would the EU as a whole, should it become really united.
