EU Energy Enlargement
Energy as the Defining Component in EU-Russian Relations After the
Eastern EU Enlargement
Marek Neuman*
University of Groningen
m.neuman@rug.nl
* Marek Neuman is a PhD student at the University of Groningen, Groningen, The
Netherlands.
This paper has been presented at the Fourth Pan-European Conference on EU Politics held on 25 - 27 September 2008 at the University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia. Please do not distribute or quote without permission of the author.
Introduction
Since the end of the Cold War, and especially with the signing of the first Partnership and
Cooperation Agreement (PCA) in 1994, the relationship between the European Union
(EU) on the one hand, and the Russian Federation on the other, has been defined as a
“strategic partnership.” This partnership has been further reinforced by the creation of four Common Spaces: the (i) Common Economic Space; (ii) Common Space of Freedom,
Security and Justice; (iii) Common Space of External Security; and (iv) Common Space of Research and Education. If we accept Barry Buzan’s and Ole Waever’s Regional
Security Complex Theory (RSCT), a close relationship in these areas of policy between the EU and Russia not only is desirable, but also essential for creating long-term peace in the region. According to Buzan and Waever, ‘[t]he central idea in RSCT is that, since most threats travel more easily over short distances than long ones, security interdependence is normally patterned into regionally based clusters: security complexes.’1 In other words, conflict is more likely to occur within a single region and hence developing an intertwined system of dependencies is seen as one way of preventing a potential conflict from bursting out.
Despite the constant declaration of the “strategic partnership” in the EU-Russian political discourse, their relationship cannot be described as harmonious. As scholars have pointed out, a multiplicity of actions undertaken by both sides have led to a
Eastern EU Enlargement
Marek Neuman*
University of Groningen
m.neuman@rug.nl
* Marek Neuman is a PhD student at the University of Groningen, Groningen, The
Netherlands.
This paper has been presented at the Fourth Pan-European Conference on EU Politics held on 25 - 27 September 2008 at the University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia. Please do not distribute or quote without permission of the author.
Introduction
Since the end of the Cold War, and especially with the signing of the first Partnership and
Cooperation Agreement (PCA) in 1994, the relationship between the European Union
(EU) on the one hand, and the Russian Federation on the other, has been defined as a
“strategic partnership.” This partnership has been further reinforced by the creation of four Common Spaces: the (i) Common Economic Space; (ii) Common Space of Freedom,
Security and Justice; (iii) Common Space of External Security; and (iv) Common Space of Research and Education. If we accept Barry Buzan’s and Ole Waever’s Regional
Security Complex Theory (RSCT), a close relationship in these areas of policy between the EU and Russia not only is desirable, but also essential for creating long-term peace in the region. According to Buzan and Waever, ‘[t]he central idea in RSCT is that, since most threats travel more easily over short distances than long ones, security interdependence is normally patterned into regionally based clusters: security complexes.’1 In other words, conflict is more likely to occur within a single region and hence developing an intertwined system of dependencies is seen as one way of preventing a potential conflict from bursting out.
Despite the constant declaration of the “strategic partnership” in the EU-Russian political discourse, their relationship cannot be described as harmonious. As scholars have pointed out, a multiplicity of actions undertaken by both sides have led to a
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