The political economy of energy security in Europe after the Russia–Ukraine war

Abstract

This study discusses the energy security in the aftermath of the war in Europe based on the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022 and the underlying political economy of policy choices. It asserts that distributional conflicts, institutional capacity and rent dispersion influenced the choices that fell short of technical supply limitations. The study focuses on the evaluation of the diversification of imports, the adequacy of storage, and the price exposure and fiscal instruments by using a mixed-methods design in the form of a pre/post-2022 panel and comparative case studies. The results indicate that there were major decreases in the dependence on Russian pipeline gas and an augmentation of emphasis on storage. It is concluded in the paper that the solution to the problem of securing energy in the long term is the need to balance between the new demands and social legitimacy.