Eastern Mediterranean Area in Energy Security of The European Union: From Sea Border Issues to Economic Conflicts of Interest (original) (raw)
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Rome, IAI, May 2022, 29 p. (IAI Papers ; 22|11), ISBN 978-88-9368-249-7, 2022
Since 2009, Eastern Mediterranean energy resources have attracted growing interests because of its vast energy reserves. These energy resources could generate several benefits for the region and beyond. Indeed, they could contribute to improve interconnectivity among countries, which is instrumental to the achievement of energy security, growth and development as well as decarbonisation. To achieve these positive results, countries needs to address and overcome some challenges, such as lack of infrastructure, economic constraints and interstate rivalry. The area could contribute to EU diversification plans as European countries seek to wean themselves off Russian gas. At the same time, it is crucial to broaden the approach to regional energy resources, starting to include also renewables and potentially hydrogen.
EastMed Project, 2018
The Eastern Mediterranean has existed geographically throughout the ages. However, developments in the 21st century have necessitated viewing it conceptually as a distinct "new" region with specific characteristics. Comprised by Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Syria and Turkey, the region is assuming increased significance in world affairs. Stability and security in contemporary Eastern Mediterranean is drastically affected by an emerging regional complex consisting of state and non-state entities in search of security. Evidently, regional dynamics and energy challenges in the Eastern Mediterranean have a direct effect on Europe’s security as a whole.
Sharing Energy Resources of Eastern Mediterranean: Regional and Global Dynamics
The newly discovered gas sources establish a political and economic ground for the formation of regional and global alliances in the Eastern Mediterranean. Although these new discoveries have the potential to alter the functioning of politics and the economy, current and past controversies, political instability, how natural gas will be shared between countries, and competition power of countries in natural gas market prevent natural gas production and exploration at the Eastern Mediterranean bay. On the other hand, in consequence of gas explorations that in the last decade, it is expected that in the near future there will be much more regional and global playmakers in the Eastern Mediterranean. Research, development and export speed of the gas reservoirs, each and every decision to be taken by the countries in the Eastern Mediterranean, will be the dynamic weighted decisions of the national energy politics and regional politics. That's why, in this study, the lead energy players in the Eastern Mediterranean and their disagreements are investigated and, the goals and targets of the global powers on the energy resources available in the Eastern Mediterranean are analysed.
Comparative Southeast European Studies , 2022
This article examines current energy-related disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean. It does so by situating them in the context of the Middle East's broader geopolitical landscape and by showing how global powers' interests and involvement have become contingent on the international and regional political environments. The latter augmented the intensity of the contestation and helped move identifiable and tangible factors, such as Exclusive Economic Zones, into the imaginative realms of geopolitics. They also provided the concerned actors with opportunities to balance out their adversaries and, by implication, diminished their willingness to compromise. Although the global powers' interest in Eastern Mediterranean energy resources is limited, the European Union does have interests in these reserves and related aspects. The fact that the monetisation of these resources is highly dependent on the EU market provides the EU with an immense amount of "buyer power" to stabilise the region and potentially balance the fears of both Greece and Turkey.
EU Energy Security & the Southeastern Mediterranean hydrocarbons.pdf
The 10 bcm/y export capacity of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline is indeed a positive energy requirement development for the Balkans, it fills some of the void, however, for the overall needs of the region it is somewhat negligible. While the EU is ever more gas dependent on Russia... will also be soon dependent to Turkey. A “hostage” situation that I am afraid does not contribute to EU Energy Security. The EU has to realize and act accordingly that the hydrocarbons discovered in Cyprus are not just a Cyprus issue. Scientific estimates especially south of the island of Crete indicate gas reservoirs that may even be larger than those in the Levantine Basin. And let’s not exclude Israel from this equation; a proven ally with significant hydrocarbon discoveries that is geopolitically stranded and surrounded by hostile to Israel nations. Or Egypt to say the least. An East Med Energy Corridor, that would avoid non-EU countries, would guarantee an uninterrupted energy supply source for the EU, of the EU!
The New Eastern Mediterranean Transformed, 2021
The discovery of significant oil and gas deposits in the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of Israel, Egypt, and Cyprus, and the alleged deposits in Greece, could potentially provide the European Union with an additional energy source that will contribute to the diversification, security, and resilience of Europe's energy supplies. Yet energy developments in the region have raised a number of legal and geopolitical challenges, mirroring the antagonistic and often turbulent relations amongst states in the region. This chapter provides an overview of the hydrocarbon discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean with the aim to explore the conditions under which countries have shaped their energy policies in the broader context of their national strategies and account for the EU's strategic involvement in the region. The analysis highlights the legal, geopolitical as well as security concerns preoccupying stakeholders in the region and examines the prospects and limitations of the Eastern Mediterranean energy resources reaching Europe.
ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to investigate the strategy applied by the two tradi-tional great powers, the US and Russia, in the eastern Mediterranean basin, and the causes of their geostrategic competition. In Chapter 1 it will be mentioned the geopolitical reasons that gave the eastern Mediterranean region such great strategic importance for the great powers. Then there will be a historical retrospection of the Cold War between the two countries, the US and the Soviet Union, as well as the post-Cold War period, and reference to the extent of the hegemony that each of them has exercised in the region. In Chapter 2, a more detailed reference will be made to the developments that have affected the region over the last decade, as well as the policy pursued by the two great powers. At the same time, there will be a reference to important geo-economic elements, which have had a significant effect on decision-making and on the policy implemented by the great powers. In Chapter 3, the EU's energy situation will be presented, its dependence on sources of energy and the policy it implements in order to obtain sufficient energy security, searching for many different suppliers and different energy supply hubs, but also by exploiting the recent resources that have been found in the eastern Mediterranean basin. Finally, in Chapter 4, Greece's role in the region will be emphasized, both as a pole of stability and as an energy hub, that could transport natural and liquefied gas to the Balkan countries and the rest of Europe.
Eastern Mediterranean Energy geostrategy on Proposed Gas Export Routes.pdf
The region of Eastern Mediterranean (EM), a meeting point of East and West, of North and South, of the three major monotheistic world religions included, constitutes in geopolitical terms a specific subsystem per se. At the crossroads of three continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa, the geopolitics of EM does not involve only regional actors but also actors placed along antagonistic concentric circles: the United States, the Russian Federation and the European Union. The region is also at the apex of two important geostrategic triangles, formed in the North and North-East with the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, and in the South and South-East with the Middle East and the Persian Gulf1 . From 2008 onwards, the security and political order in this subsystem, existing since the onset of the Cold War, collapsed, due to the deterioration in relations between the USA's two most capable regional allies, Turkey and Israel and the continuing fallout of the Arab Spring. It's been replaced by a widening civil war in Syria and a geopolitical rivalry among Turkey, Israel, Cyprus and Greece and between Western countries and the emboldened powers of Russia and Iran. In the meanwhile, the EU-Cyprus-GreeceIsrael energy cooperation was strengthened by Europe's interest in the diversification of routes and sources of gas supplies (EU Second Strategic Energy Review, 2008) and the promotion of the Southern Gas Corridor Strategy (SGC). This strategy, was mostly triggered by the worsening Russia-Ukraine relationship in 2006-2009 and the Kremlin's decision to annex Crimea, legally making part of Ukraine (early 2014).
Energy Security in the Eastern Mediterranean
As is widely known, the East Mediterranean region has experienced a series of large-scale discoveries of energy resources offshore Israel, Cyprus and Egypt (Leviathan, Tamar, Aphrodite and Zohr fields) since 2009. From the first moment on, the respective energy findings lying in those countries' Economic Exclusive Zones (EEZ) were cheered as a 'game changer' in the conflict-wracked region and as a means of achieving energy security for both sides: the countries with the energy reserves-ownership (the principal actors) as well as possible energy buyers, especially the energy-suffocated Europe. By examining the geopolitical architecture of the region, however, with regard to the long-lasting ethnical and political conflicts as well as some other economic and political factors pertinent to the confirmed energy amounts, it is argued that the current energy discoveries can hardly provide the long-expected energy security for both regional and non-regional actors in the foreseeable future. Unless circumstances locally, regionally and globally align favourably, the area is unlikely to fulfil its potential as a gas exporter.