European Union energy security: The challenges of liberalisation in a risk-prone international environment

The liberalisation of European energy markets and their integration into a single market are under way. However, the energy environment of the European Union as well as its own internal situation have undergone profound changes. The energy security of member states is therefore an important issue that should be examined. The energy security of member states is therefore an important issue that should be examined. This security concerns gas markets with the problem of long-term contracts between suppliers and consumers and also electricity markets, because of the increasing use of natural gas to generate electricity. Lack of investment is also a problem. Energy market players have to manage security concerns in these two markets in order to supply socially and economically essential commodities. In this article, we examine two main topics. The first is related to the European Union´s capacity to solve the problem of investment in transmission and peak power generation by finding internal solutions. The second concerns the upstream structure of the gas market, namely the problem of investing in transnational gas pipelines, and relations with gas suppliers outside the EU.