Towards a common European energy policy? Energy security debates in Poland and Germany

Head of project: Heiko Pleines, funded by the Deutsch-Polnische Wissenschaftsstiftung (DPWS)/ Polsko-Niemiecka Fundacja na rzecz Nauki (PNFN), Duration 2014-2016

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The project has been conducted by the Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen with the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, the Environmental Studies and Policy Research Institute (ESPRi) in Wrocław and Jacobs University Bremen.

The project looked at energy security debates as the biggest challenge to the development of a common European energy policy. It examined how discrepancies between EU member states’ understanding and articulation of ‘energy security’ impede development of a common European energy policy. Germany and Poland, because of their prominence in the EU’s energy debates, served as ideal case studies. Moreover, as the two countries face similar energy security challenges on many occasions, but often opt for differing interpretations and policy solutions, this analysis also allowed an assessment of the potential for energy cooperation between the two countries and at the EU level in general.

The analysis has been based on the securitization approach developed by the Copenhagen School, which brings together debates about security with actual decision-making processes and postulates that state perception of security threats—including energy security—is an intersubjective construction by key actors. By scrutinizing how energy is debated and ‘securitized’ in Poland and Germany, we will better understand the challenges to achieving EU energy solidarity. Accordingly, the analysis has on the one hand focused on debates of key audiences, namely political elites, business elites, epistemic communities and the general public (covered through mass media reporting) both on the domestic and the bilateral/EU arena; on the other hand, it has examined decision-making processes in politics and business.

The project has conducted case studies of selected current policy issues in the natural gas and electricity sectors, namely Russian gas supplies, shale gas, electricity grid interconnectors, and promotion of renewable energy. Each case study has been analysed with the same multi-method approach. A documentation of data collection and analysis is available here.

A summary of project results is available in the form of a policy paper.


Publications

Szulecki, Kacper (ed.) (forthcoming): Energy Security in Europe: Divergent Perceptions and Policy Challenges, Basingstoke (Palgrave Macmillan),

Heinrich, Andreas/ Heiko Pleines (2017): Towards a common European energy policy? Energy security debates in Poland and Germany on the example of the NordStream pipeline debate, in: Anne Jenichen / Ulrike Liebert (eds): Europeanisation vs. Renationalisation: Learning from Crisis for European Development, Opladen (Barbara Budrich Verlag), accepted for publication

Heinrich, Andreas/ Kusznir, Julia/ Lis, Aleksandra/ Pleines, Heiko/ Smith Stegen, Karen/ Szulecki, Kacper (2016): Towards a common EU energy policy? Debates on Energy Security in Poland and Germany, ESPRI Policy Paper 02/2016.

Heinrich, Andreas/ Kusznir, Julia/ Lis, Aleksandra/ Pleines, Heiko/ Smith Stegen, Karen/ Szulecki, Kacper (2016): Auf dem Weg zu einer gemeinsamen EU Energiepolitik? Debatten über Energiesicherheit in Polen und Deutschland, in: Polen-Analysen 190, 2-11

Sattich, Thomas (2016): Energy Imports, Geoeconomics, and Regional Coordination: The Case of Germany and Poland in the Baltic Energy System - Close Neighbours, Close(r) Cooperation?, in: International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy 6(4), 789-800

Ancygier, Andrzej/ Szulecki, Kacper (2016): Die polnische Energie- und Klimapolitik in der Verantwortung von PiS, in: Polen-Analysen Nr. 175, 2-9

Kusznir, Julia (2015): Gazproms neue Strategie für Europa, in: Russland-Analysen 303, 5-11

Heinrich, Andreas (2015): Exportoptionen für russisches Erdgas nach dem Scheitern von South Stream, in: Russland-Analysen 303, 2-5

Heinrich, Andreas (2015): Коммуникация во время конфликта и российско-украинский газовый спор 2006 года [Konfliktkommunikation im russisch-ukrainischen Erdgasstreit 2006], in: Chuvychkina, Inna (Hg.): Eksportnye nefte- i gazoprovody na postsovetskom prostranstve, Ibidem-Verlag, Stuttgart, 171-199.