Gazprom in Europe: a Business Doomed to Fail? Russie.Nei.Reports, No. 18, July 2014
The construction of what is nowadays called European energy policy is an ongoing process that officially started with the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, and has not yet been entirely finalized. It took several decades to move from a Community composed of six countries to a policy – not fully fledged – intended to strengthen as much as possible cohesion between 28 EU member states in the energy sector.
The European gas sector has been progressively liberalized since the 1990s. The leitmotivs of European energy policy have been and continue to be the opening-up of national gas markets, the enhancement of both competition and transparency, and the struggle against monopolies. The Third Energy Package creates, among others, the concept of European network codes, applied throughout Europe. The European Union (EU) has also developed a European energy policy based on three pillars: security of supply, environment, and competitiveness.