EU-Russia trading relations: the challenges of a new gas architecture

Catherine Locatelli ()
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Catherine Locatelli: équipe EDDEN - PACTE - Pacte, Laboratoire de sciences sociales - UPMF - Université Pierre Mendès France - Grenoble 2 - UJF - Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 - IEPG - Sciences Po Grenoble - Institut d'études politiques de Grenoble - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Gas security is a key factor in the European Union's energy policy. Contractual relations based on long-term contracts during the 1970s and 1980s led to relative stability in energy trade between the EU and its gas suppliers. But since the mid-1990s, the process of opening up the EU's gas industries to competition and the desire to create a single gas market has led to an in-depth reorganization of the sector. The EU now intends to redefine the way in which it manages its relations with its main suppliers, such as Russia, by attempting to impose a model based on competition, unbundling of network industries and privatization. Russia does not intend to implement this "EU model" in its gas sector, despite the big changes taking place in its domestic market. An approach based on the preferential use of state instruments conflicts with the multilateralism and principles of competition upheld by the EU. The EU's normative power is thus in contradiction with the institutional environment of the Russian energy sector. It is therefore unlikely that energy relations between the EU and Russia will be structured solely on standards stemming from international rules and institutions.

Keywords: energy security; European Union; natural gas market (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis, nep-ene, nep-int and nep-reg
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Published in European Journal of Law and Economics, 2015, 39 (2), pp.313-329. ⟨10.1007/s10657-013-9423-y⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01131203

DOI: 10.1007/s10657-013-9423-y

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