Europe’s energy realignment: economic and political priorities amid the Eastern divide challenge

In today’s global economy, the current energy systems face significant challenges given the requested efficient transition away from a heavy reliance on fossil fuels. Countries’ fierce competition to secure access to strategic raw materials that support their changing energy models defines the current international economic and political landscape. Countries require a more balanced, responsible, and sustainable exploitation of natural resources, along with an energy mix that ensures energy security and minimizes environmental degradation. Russia’s war against Ukraine has significantly exposed the weakness of the chosen European energy model, given the Russian government’s suspension of gas supplies to several EU member states, leading to record-high energy prices in August 2022 and to major disruptions in supply. The upgrading of the European energy policy, which is currently in gestation, needs to adapt rapidly to the clashing dynamics between the need to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and the ongoing shortages produced by new geopolitics and geoeconomics. If non-intermediate policy responses between current and future needs are taken, the existing European Eastern divide will deepen, as the geopolitics of energy has found, beyond the geographical aspects of energy supply, a new geostrategic instrument to achieve power.