The Energy Security Policy of the European Union: A Success or a Failure? An Analysis of the Nabucco Gas Pipeline Project.

One of the central components of European energy diversification and security strategy is the expansion into the Central Asian and Caspian Sea regions. Part of this is the development of the Nabucco gas pipeline project, which should bring gas from these regions to Europe. However, the construction, which has been in planning for many years, is proceeding extremely slowly. In the light of this, this project aims to investigate whether the EU can create energy security policy effectively in an internationa l context shaped by national energy security policy, energy corporations and the politics of supplier countries. The project will analyse which external and internal dimensions are delaying the realisation of the Nabucco pipeline and how they influence th e common energy security policy of the EU member states. The research project is based on detailed case studies of the EU?s energy security policy and the Nabucco project. The case studies will focus on the different actor categories (the European Commiss ion, national governments and energy companies). They will cover several decision-making constellations within the area of energy policy where actors from the energy sector interacted with actors at the EU level over time. The actual choice of relevant in formation will depend on opportunities for gathering data. For this, the advice of the colleagues from NUPI, who have been researching these issues for a long time, is of great value. During the project, I will use different research methods. The central methods will be the systematic evaluation of academic publications, journalists? reports and electronic databanks and the compilation of relevant statistical data from both the EU and state statistics and energy companies. I will also conduct interviews w ith representatives of the European Commission and the national governments responsible for the creation of energy policy, as well as with representatives of the energy companies and experts in this field.