Security of Energy and Relations of European Union with Central Asian Countries

Subject Areas :

Ali Sabbaghian ¹ (استادیار دانشکده حقوق و علوم سیاسی دانشگاه تهران)
Abas Sarvestani ² ()

Received: 2014-09-23 Accepted : 2014-09-23 Published : 2014-09-01

Keywords: Central Asia, International system, Lisbon Treaty, European Union, EU-Central Asia relations, Nabucco, South Stream and energy security,

Abstract :

Abstract The geo-economic position and the extent of oil and gas reserves in Central Asia in the past two decades have given an important place to this region in international equations. Besides that, the occurrence of 11September 2001 terrorist attacks and the neighborhood of Central Asia with crises centers and issues like terrorism, cultivation and smuggling of narcotic drugs and fundamentalism have raised the geopolitical importance of the region and prepared the ground for big powers presence. The dispute between Russia and Ukraine in 2008 and 2014 and suspension of natural gas supply to European countries necessitated the search for new source of energy by European Union and they thus, turned to the expansion of relations with Central Asian countries. The sphere of relations was further expanded after the Lisbon Treaty which was an attempt to bring efficiency and coherence to EU place in international system. This convention emphasized on propagation of European values and expansion of relations of EU with the developing countries. The present article examines the causes and grounds of changing role of energy in cooperation of European Union with Central Asian countries and the role and impact of Lisbon Treaty in expansion and institutionalization of these relations in the past two decades. The main question raised by the paper is; what is the place of Central Asia in security of energy of European Union? The underlying hypothesis is the use of energy by Russia as a lever for putting pressure against European Union also the growing need of European Union for import of energy sources have prepared the ground for expansion of cooperation between the European Union and the Central Asian countries. While the relations of European Union with Russia is strained, the expansion of relations of European Union with Central Asian countries can facilitate the process of putting pressure on Russia   and will lead to a better negotiating power for European Union vis-à-vis Russia. The finding of the study shows that the European Union has come to the conclusion that asymmetric and imbalanced dependence on Russia for energy and the security threat and repercussion resulted from it in recent years can be balanced by expansion of relations with Central Asian countries and diversification of sources of energy.