ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the far these new policies represented an advance over existing commitments; how far European member states’ policy preferences approximated to a shared vision of energy security; and how the new initiatives related to the ‘markets versus geopolitics’ framework and the debates over democratic governance norms. Energy policy was not formally incorporated within the scope of the Common Foreign and Security Policy and no legal base existed for the development of a common external energy policy. A range of energy initiatives was gradually established on a low-prople and ad hoc basis within the EU’s different international partnerships. External-relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner revealed that the aim to bolster the foreign-policy dimensions of energy policy was the key driving force behind the ENP. A number of diplomats and politicians expressed concern that the focus on climate change was having too dominant an impact on overall energy policy.
