European Union energy security: the challenges of liberalisation in a risk-prone international environment Society

The liberalisation and integration of European energy markets in a single one are going on. However, the energy environment of the European Union as well as its own internal situation have undergone profound changes. Thus, energy security issue of member states is discussed. This security concerns gas market, where suppliers'contracts and relations have been signed to secure the system, and today electricity markets because of the use of natural gas as an input of power generation. These two markets comply with security concerns, as investments in peak power plants, in transmissions assets, diversification of suppliers, negociation of contracts with different durations. Actors of energy markets have to manage the security concerns to supply socially and economically essential commodities. In this article, we address two main topics. The first is related to gas and electricity transmission, access and investment in huge transnational gas pipelines and electricity interconnectors. The second concerns the upstream structure of the gas and electricity value chains, namely the problem of investing in peak electricity generation and relations with gas suppliers outside the EU.