The Thesis provides an examination of the multidimensional phenomenon of the European Union and then makes an inquiry on the development of the Community’s energy policy focusing on the European Commission’s objectives and the national preferences of the Member States. With the utilization of conceptual tools found in the theoretical toolbox of the paradigm of Defensive Realism this study attempts to answer the research question, “To what extent can a common EU energy policy be developed?” The purpose is to explain the phenomenon of the EU through a defensive realist prism, to analyze and discuss the constraints and the prospects concerning the creation of a common energy policy, the behavior of the member states in general and of the EU3 particular, namely of the United Kingdom, of France and of Germany. The main conclusion is that all member states, both the powerful and the weaker ones, are confronted with some common challenges. Although they do have different energy mixes that lead them to make distinctive and separate energy policy choices, while often have national preferences and interests that are conflicting with each other, simultaneously they do share similar energy supply and national security concerns such as their increasing import dependence, their exposure to high and volatile oil prices and the international competition for resources. Since they behave as defensive realist states and as energy security seekers it is an imperative for their survival and well-being, apart from their individual policies and bi-lateral agreements, to allow on the one hand the development of an internal energy market and on the other the external dimension of an EU energy policy. Therefore they benefit from the size of an EU-wide energy market and from the regulatory frameworks, the dialogues, the partnerships and the other initiatives that their institutional creation promotes. In conditions of growing multi-polarity within the international system, which thankfully at present has a balanced form, acting together can be a strategic option for survival and security. Consequently the main conclusion is that although the member states will continue to operate as independent actors within the anarchical global arena the cost of not utilizing the scale that the EU offers will probably be unbearable.

The return of energy security, as an issue of growing importance in international relations. has been a hallmark of the post-Cold War period. The systemic rift of 9/11 served as a 'wake-up call' in creating awareness of energy dependence and the associated political instability nexus, leading to energy diversification and conservation measures being initiated in major energy-consuming regions. Owing to its differing trade and supply structures, the role of natural gas as a fuel of choice to fill the gap between the era of oil and the era of nuclear/renewable energy bas become part of the energy security agenda while exposing it to a number of factors which have made it a key regional issue. Originally a bearer of an identity of an 'energy community', the European Union (EU) has been a leading proponent of this process. This thesis will provide a systematic re-examination of the foreign energy policy of the EU towards the Black Sea/Caspian region providing an explanation for EU policy failures during the critical years from 2004 to 2009. Despite a mature gas trade relationship with and its proximity to the energy rich nations of the Former Soviet Union (FSU), EU-Russia energy relations experienced a severe refreezing following the change of political leadership in Russia after 2000, which took place against a backdrop of rising global market prices for oil and, linked. to this, similar rises in the price of gas. During the same period the two transformative enlargements into Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) promised new energy policy opportunities. yet they have also created looming challenges in the process of creating a broader energy security community. The emerging conflation of the Caspian Sea region with the Black Sea region in energy terms, with Turkey as the conduit linking the energy-producing regions of the Caucasus and Central Asia with consuming states in Europe, have mutually become exposed to geopolitical realities that are clustered in the broader region. Drawing on extensive fieldwork data collected both in Brussels and Ankara the thesis provides vital information and analysis on the criticality of energy supply and the transit side of the policy and sheds new light on this process in the case study. The thesis identifies the causes of the deadlock affecting the policy-making process at the EU level and at the regional level in the Black/Caspian Sea region by examining both the internal and external dynamics which have frustrated the policymaking process. A focus in the EU on liberalisation and energy diversification have been hallmarks of the internal dynamics of the EU's policymaking processes. This has direct1y further added to the increased 'bureaucratisation' of the EU's energy policymaking process. Drawing on Allison's Foreign Policy Analysis Bureaucratic Politics (BPO) paradigm, primary and secondary data, including primary interviews with policy-makers, the thesis illuminates this little studied area and fills a gap in the literatures. The thesis also highlights at the regional level Ankara's new foreign and diplomacy-based energy policy dynamism juxtaposed with Moscow's omnipresence in regional energy security affairs. This regional juxtaposition of Ankara's energy needs and Moscow's omnipresence in the region poses difficult challenges for the implementation of EU energy policy as is discussed in the thesis.

This thesis is concerned with the liberalisation of the European Energy markets and the affects this has had on total energy systems. The work concentrates on a number of case studies all of which are located in the area surrounding Gelsenkirchen - Bottrop - Gladbeck, the centre of the Ruhr region of Germany. The thesis describes briefly how the legislation of the parliament of the extended European Union has been interpreted and enacted into German legislation and its affects on production, transport, sales and customers. Primarily the legislation has been enacted to reduce energy costs by having a competitive market while enabling security of supply. The legislation whose development has accelerated since 1999 can lead to negative effects and these have been highlighted for the case studies chosen. The legislation and technological advances, each of them successful by themselves, do not provide the expected reduction of carbon dioxide emissions when applied to total energy system. The introduction of human behaviour as a missing link makes the problems evident and gives a theoretical basis to overcome these problems. The hypothesis is proven by eight detailed research projects and four concisely described ones. The base of the research is the experience gained on approximately 1,000 operation years of the simplest total energy system, that of centralised heating. This experience is transferred to different solutions for total energy systems and their economics in combination with the changing legislation and observation of human behaviour. The variety of topics of the case studies includes the production of heat by boiler, solar or combined heat and power and the use of fuel cells. Additionally the transfer of heat, at the place of demand is considered, either as an individual boiler in a building or as de-centralised district heating. The various results of these projects come together in a final project which covers four different heating systems in identical buildings each with five apartments. Based on the experience described a schematic of the energy system is developed demonstrating the interdependence of actors within energy systems, the energy system itself and the outer frame which includes legislation and the environment. In parallel a financial solution is proposed for a future carbon dioxide free heating and hot potable water supply. To combine both systems a missing link that of human behaviour is introduced. This linkage requires changes of legislation which are described. The solution proposed enables future energy consumption and in parallel the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.

This research project presents a novel and fundamental understanding of energy security and threat perceptions by analysing the EU-Russia energy relationship concerning gas supply during the period 2004-2012. The ultimate goal of this thesis is to address the two-fold research question of why differences exist in the threat perceptions and understandings of energy security among member states of the EU, and how they affect EU’s energy stance and its gas relations with Russia. Encountering endemic problems with the coherence of EU energy policy towards Russia, the research focuses on two case studies, those of Poland and Germany, based on identifying their energy interests and identities and the previous patterns of energy interactions with Russia as an explanatory basis for the construction of threat perceptions.

This PhD offers an original assessment of the EU policies aimed at developing the institutional structures of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), focusing in particular on the attempted Europeanisation of energy governance in the SGC countries: Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Underpinned by Rational-Choice Institutionalism and its mid-range adaption – the External Incentive Model – the PhD rests on two levels of analyses: one describing EU ambitions in this policy domain and the other assessing the empirical success of those ‘Europeanising’ ambitions. At the first level, the PhD describes the ways in which the EU aims to liberalise access to the transit pipelines along the SGC in line with its own preferences. This means subjecting natural gas supply via the SGC to ostensibly “depoliticised” free-market dynamics, as opposed to political bargaining among the various state and non-state actors. In other words, EU policy endeavours to create a regulatory buffer zone in the EU neighbourhood, which would ensure "domestic level" safety in external energy supply. In tying third countries to the rules of its own making, the EU seeks to institutionalise its soft power vis-à-vis others, enabling it to influence the behaviour of actors without the coercive use of military and/or economic means. At the second level of analysis, the PhD argues that such endeavours have been largely unsuccessful. In the absence of EU membership prospects or membership aspirations, the net domestic adoption costs in the target SGC countries explain the failure of the Europeanisation strategy in Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan. These domestic costs stem from the SGC countries' rational national interest in controlling the supply and transit of natural gas from, to and across their sovereign territories in order to further national strategic and/or economic ends. Such interests are intrinsically incompatible with the EU's conception of competitive and depoliticised energy supply and transit. Consequently, the PhD demonstrates that the SGC will continue to be influenced by the geopolitical and (geo)economic motivations/interests of the transit states concerned, which will render the EU supply of natural gas via this corridor uncompetitive and politicised; and from the EU perspective, potentially insecure.

During the first decade of the 21st century energy security has re-emerged as an issue of concern on the international agenda, attracting a wide range of analysis and increased attention in scholarly debates. This thesis seeks to contribute to the existing literature with its focus on the formulation of understandings of energy security on the level of national elite discourses of European Union (EU) Member States. This thesis analyses elite discourses on energy in three EU countries: Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom. It looks at energy as an increasingly salient theme of newspaper coverage for the period of 2000-2009. It addresses two research questions. Firstly is energy supply seen as highly threatened to an extent that extraordinary measures are necessary?Secondly, it assesses whether and to what extent discourses converge across the three selected countries. The overall aim of this thesis is to discuss whether a common understanding of energy security is emerging across EU Member States’ elite discourses. The thesis identifies politicisation, not securitisation, as having the biggest influence on national public discourses. It demonstrates signs of convergence between all three national discourses, showing its occurrence in terms of defining problems and to a lesser degree in terms of preferred solutions. The thesis identifies year 2006 as a particularly pivotal learning experience which triggered an increased scepticism towards Russia. It also shows that this scepticism was directed towards a personified villain, Vladimir Putin. These shifts were visible in other key events identified in the thesis, primarily in August 2008 (conflict in Georgia) and January 2009 (second gas spat between Kyiv and Moscow). There are instances suggesting that the perceptions of these problems are gradually (albeit slowly) translated into a common European challenge. A more unified EU foreign policy vis-à-vis Russia in the energy field however seems unlikely. The differences between discourses concerned various national factors causing energy insecurity in all three countries. Visible differences were also seen in terms of perceptions of the European Union. Ideas for pan-European solutions emerged only following salient crisis events, shifting perceptions but then returning to business as usual. Although all countries tend to increasingly perceive Russian energy policies as a common European problem, the thesis is pessimistic about the perspectives of common European solutions.

This thesis analyses EU energy policy from a comparative agenda-setting perspective providing new theoretical and empirical insights into EU energy policy-making. Although two of the founding treaties of the European Communities covered the coal and nuclear sectors, the European Union has struggled ever since to establish itself in the field of energy policy. In particular, it failed to include an explicit Community competence on energy in Community primary law in subsequent treaty revisions – with the exception of the new Title XX on Energy introduced with the Lisbon Treaty. Nonetheless the European Union has established itself as an important player in European energy policy, as reflected in EU directives on energy market liberalisation, energy efficiency standards and targets for renewable energy sources. At the same time, policymakers at various levels, business, NGOs and experts agree that more EU energy policy is needed to face current and future transnational policy challenges, notably, climate change and energy security. This has led to numerous studies with policy recommendations on EU level action in the field of energy policy. By contrast, very few studies have analysed the drivers and barriers of EU energy policy-making and factors that can explain policy change and stability. Yet a better understanding of EU energy policy-making is a necessary precondition for the development of appropriate policy recommendations. This thesis provides an analysis of EU energy policy-making by identifying factors that can explain change and stability from an agenda-setting perspective. Drawing upon EU studies and agenda-setting literature the analysis distinguishes between two different agenda-setting routes, high and low politics, along the key stages of an issue career: initiation, specification, expansion and entrance. It accounts for the following key variables in EU agenda-setting: contextual factors, policy entrepreneurs, issue definition, and institutional venues. These are applied to two contrasting case studies of EU energy policy: nuclear energy and renewable energy. The study shows how and why Community initiatives failed in an institutionally ‘strong' EU energy policy arena under Euratom, but succeeded in the field of renewable energy under the EC Treaty.

In 2014, European heads of state selected new targets for the EU as part of the 2030 climate and energy framework. The targets will guide the ambition and nature of EU policy in this area until 2030 and are likely to have important implications for Europe’s transition to a low-carbon economy. The decision taken by the European Council was preceded by several years of vigorous interaction between interest groups, the European Commission and the member states. The outcome of this interaction set the agenda for EU climate and energy policy but the role of interest groups in climate and energy policy, especially relative to important economic ideas, is relatively under researched. By augmenting and applying the multiple streams approach developed by John Kingdon in the 1980s and using process-tracing techniques, this thesis contributes a detailed case study of this important instance of European interest representation. It is found that the complex and dynamic political context for the interaction made planning and executing advocacy campaigns challenging for all actors. The debate about the 2030 framework is shown to hinge on the idea of technology-neutrality and its status on the policymaking agenda. A number of policy coalitions are observed with a wide range of characteristics, some novel. Several attempts at ‘policy entrepreneurship’ by interest groups are recorded but most were disrupted by the confused and fast-changing political situation. It is shown that a combination of spill-over between policy windows, framing and coalition building activity served to push the idea of technology neutrality up the agenda. The multiple streams approach is shown to be broadly applicable to the research context and aims but greater agency over policy windows than originally assumed must be granted to actors and the possibility for successful policy entrepreneurship to yield unintended policy outcomes allowed for.

This research analyses the extent to which three newer (European Union) EU member states, Poland, Bulgaria and Latvia have attempted and succeeded in shaping the development of the EU's energy security policy, focusing on natural gas. This explores the argument that EU membership affects the formation of national foreign and energy policy as well as procedures of policy-making, and that newer member states have also been able to shape EU level policy-making through the ‘uploading’ of national preferences. The research engages with relevant conceptual issues to develop and utilise a framework which is a synthesis of literature on EU agenda-setting, policy framing, Europeanisation and the social construction of energy ‘crises’ and (in)security. This conceptual frame is then used to explore and evaluate the influence of newer member states on EU energy policy agenda-setting, policy-making and policy implementation. Evaluating the obstacles and opportunities for influence, an empirically rich data set is analysed to test the extent to which five theoretically derived hypotheses account for member state influence. Five mechanisms are identified as potentially key factors in explaining the degree of influence which member states have. The thesis suggests that one is the impact of supply disruptions and price rises on perceptions and constructions of national and EU energy security. This can contribute towards a context that is conducive to the arguments about policy change and projection being made, a policy window, and is a reflection of the social construction of energy insecurity and energy crises. Diplomatic skill and learning to ‘play the EU game’, being active in Council summits and technocratic level(s), and engaging in consensual policy-making that adheres to EU norms and interests is seen as important. Another key factor is the role of Russia as a major and sometimes monopoly gas supplier, in constraining, enabling, and influencing the strength of national interests - the extent of political will and EU energy policy activism. A fourth factor is considered to be the extent to which institutionalised sub-EU regional and strategic alliances exist and are prioritised as an arena to develop coordinated policies and preferences. The final conceptually derived factor is related to the strength of administrative capacity, in terms of well-coordinated institutions at the national and EU level, and sufficient personnel and resources. The thesis also provides a study of the development of EU energy policy since the 1950s in chapter two, and chapters three to five focus on the three country case studies; Poland, Bulgaria and Latvia. These empirical chapters include in each case a history of their energy policy and relations with both the EU and Russia. The thesis concludes with an analysis of the empirical findings using comparative country case manner approach, along with conceptual (and methodological) observations based on the testing of the hypotheses.