In recent years, energy security has become one of the most prioritized issues on the EU’s agenda. The EU is highly dependent on external supplies of energy, and the EU’s ambitious agenda for developing alternative energy sources is unlikely to change the situation. The debates over whether the EU should “speak with a single voice” in external energy policy are usually framed within the intergovernmental-supranational dichotomy: Member States have different national energy strategies and tend to favor bilateral negotiations with their suppliers, while the Commission asserts that it should have a wider range of competence in this area. The last wave of the Commission’s proposals was catalyzed with the cuts in supply during the gas crisis between Russia and Ukraine in January 2006. Diversification of energy mix has been announced as one of the most important areas for securing external gas and oil supplies. In September 2011, the European Commission received a mandate from Member States to negotiate energy deals with Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan (within the Nabucco, the EU’s politically prioritized pipeline project). This paper examines whether the EU’s diversification strategy is consistent with EU’s self-identification as a democracy promoter and a normative actor, as well as with the EU’s proclaimed adherence to market-based regulations in energy. The paper analyzes how the EU (and the Commission in particular) justifies its cooperation with the authoritarian regimes of the Caspian region, and then evaluates to what extent such cooperation in energy can benefit - as the EU officials claim - the democratization process. Then the paper addresses the question whether these Commission’s claims for “pipeline diplomacy” can be explained by its attempts to expand the competence in the related area.
