EU Energy Diplomacy: Searching for New Suppliers in Azerbaijan and Iran

Abstract

ABSTRACTPolitical and security developments taking place in Ukraine in the last years and its increasingly tense relation with Russia placed energy supply and particularly gas supply concerns higher on the European agenda. The paper argues that these developments triggered an increased attention to geopolitical considerations in European energy policy and in particular in ensuring the security of gas supply. The ongoing Russo-Ukrainian crisis has affected an important European Union (EU) gas supply route and has damaged the European trust in Russia as an energy supplier. In response to this, the EU has expanded its energy diplomacy work. The paper will analyse the EU work to develop its energy diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan and with Iran as part of its policy to diversify its energy sources and routes away from Russian gas. The Southern Gas Corridor is the pipeline central to this diversification strategy, as well as to the relations with new energy partners. The study will show that in the case of both Azerbaijan and Iran, the EU was able to mobilize energy diplomacy tools to improve its bilateral energy relations and its overall energy supply security. The paper draws on the analysis of official documents and press coverage as well as on 18 interviews with energy policy stakeholders based in the EU and in energy-supplying countries.