SECURITISATION IN ENERGY SECURITY - THE CASE OF THE EU AND THE RUSSIAN NATURAL GAS

Lipovac Milan (Milan Lipovac, Fakultet bezbednosti Univerziteta u Beogradu, Gospodara Vučića 50), lipovac@fb.bg.ac.rs
Simić Tatjana (Tatjana Simić, Fakultet bezbednosti Univerziteta u Beogradu)

The concept of energy security reaches the top of political and security agenda of the EU in 2005, when the first disruption of natural gas supply began. The greatest concern of EU officials, in that sense, is related to the possibility of (ab)use of energy as a political weapon in terms of dependence on Russian energy supplies. The topic of this paper is related to the securitisation of natural gas that Russia exports to the EU member states. The paper analyzes the documents and official statements of the highest EU officials in which the dependence on Russian gas was designated as an essential security threat to the energy security of the EU. The paper also presents the dynamics of the process of securitisation, the main actors of the process, outlined possible causes, and presents the consequences that have encouraged or accelerated the special measures by the EU.

Keywords: nergy security, securitization, special measures, the EU, Russia, Ukraine