ABSTRACT
Multilateral regional cooperation in the energy sector does not occur on a regular basis and there has not been the opportunity to establish a significant independent corpus of specialized literature. The documents which define the Energy Union impress a strong dimension of regional cooperation on the process of internal market consolidation. State-centrism is another perspective on regionalism as it evolved, especially at the level of political rhetoric, during a period characterized by the re-emergence of nationalist thought. Considering the eclectic character of contemporary regionalism, it is understandable that a pushback against inter-governmentalism exists. This pushback manifests itself through the exclusivity of the state as a generator of regional cooperation and integration and through the refusal of the exclusive process of constituting regional institutions. The largest part of the literature on regionalism, and especially that dating from the earliest periods of analysis, developed around the construct of Europeanism.
