European Energy Governance: The Pursuit of a Common External Energy Policy and the Domestic Politics of EU Member States Preferences

The need to establish a common external energy policy in the EU emerges from rapid changes in the international system. Rising competition for the available resources, increasing demand for the fossil fuels in China and India, alongside the gas markets’ structural changes from regional to global, means high supply security risks of existing energy imports of the EU member states. Considering these international shifts, it is therefore puzzling why until now no meaningful common external energy policy had emerged in the EU. I argue that the preferences of member states’ governments are being influenced by domestic economic interest groups and geopolitical relations with the suppliers. Based on the selected country cases of Germany, Poland, France and Spain this chapter (I) analyses the process of domestic preference formation of these countries towards their main gas suppliers—Russia and Algeria; and (II) examines what role geopolitics play in this policy domain.