全球智库信息集成服务系统

Chapter three of Securing the Energy Union: five pillars and five regions looks at the countries of southern Europe: Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain. This chapter highlights the diversity of the energy landscape, with, for example, Italy far more reliant on gas, and Greece far more reliant on coal, than the other countries of the region. Supply sources also vary, with Russia, Algeria, Norway and the international LNG market playing different roles.

Regional cooperation is not well advanced. Looking to the future, Simone Tagliapietra notes that the region is moving towards more renewables and improved energy efficiency, but is also excited about the potential for big new gas projects such as the Southern Corridor and the major gas finds in the eastern Mediterranean, which could both supply gas to southern Europe as well as transform it into a transit platform for supplying the rest of Europe.

He also describes a Euro-Mediterranean cooperation scheme through which Europe’s southern neighbours could pursue a sustainable energy transformation strategy with support from the EU, with southern Europe benefiting both as project partners and as importers of energy from a transforming southern neighbourhood. Tagliapietra sees the Energy Union as essential for providing a framework for decarbonisation and integration, while supporting major projects that can improve energy security for all of Europe.