Author: Minja Čulić
Despite often conflicting positions, the European Union and Russia continue to be mutually important strategic partners in almost all economic areas. However, it seems that one economic aspect stands out in comparison to others in terms of this dependence, and that is energy. Although the European Union is showing a tendency to become energy independent, such ideas are still in their infancy, which is why many countries of the “Old Continent” continue to be dependent on Russian gas as one of the leading energy sources, primarily due to reduced use of dirty, fossil fuels. However, they are indeed being forgotten in the European Union. On the other hand, the Russian economy is largely dependent on fuel exports, primarily oil and natural gas, and due to the energy independence of the growing superpowers, India and predominantly China, which have opted to use energy from their coal communities, the European Union continues to be Russia’s most important strategic partner. However, after the Navalny affair, the future of the already agreed “North Stream” was called into question due to anti-Russian protests throughout the European Union. This paper is dedicated to researching the extent to which the European Union depends on Russia in terms of EU energy security and whether there is a potential alternative to the one for Nord Stream?
Keywords: Energy, European Union, Geopolitics, Russia, Security
VPI BH RESEARCH INTERNSHIP paper, Foreign Policy Initiative BH, 2021.
Mentor: Lejla Ramić-Mesihović, PhD
English version PDF*: Challenges of the European Union-Russia partnership in the field of energy