ABSTRACT
Energy relations between the EU and the BICS have appeared to be a complex enterprise, driven by high hopes and expectations, a broad variety of political initiatives, but also by significant shortcomings. With energy a prominent issue in nearly all of the EU’s political dialogues, the external dimension, which barely appeared on the agenda 10 years ago, has gained importance (Youngs, 2009; Belyi, 2008). Moreover, with greater interdependencies between regions and countries and as competition for scarce resources grow, European external energy relations need to readjust and to integrate rising powers into a close-knit network (Smith and Elgström, 2013; Keukeleire and Hooijmaaijers, 2014).
