Infrastructural Politics of the Energy Union vs Illiberal Democracies

The article addresses the conflicting energy politics of the EU in contradistinction to Hungary and Poland. We contrast and compare their differing approaches to reshaping energy markets underpinned by approaches to infrastructure ownership and flagship infrastructural projects. The EU’s energy policies, culminating in the proposal for an Energy Union, have rendered energy infrastructure fundamental to European integration. From this perspective, the Energy Union is a political project contributing to turning the EU into a de facto superstate by facilitating the creation of a single market. In contrast, Hungary and Poland are leading dissenters of the Energy Union by renationalising their energy sectors under slogans of state sovereignty. The regulated capitalist vision of a pan-European energy market is in sharp contrast with the etatist-nationalist ideologies of renationalised energy infrastructure. We propose an analytical framework, based on Mann’s (1984) concept of infrastructural power, to address how energy infrastructure ownership and infrastructural mega-investments manifest state-building ambitions and ideologies. Accordingly, we propose an analytical framework that distinguishes between three interconnected realms: ideology, political economics, and technopolitics. These dimensions reflect and reinforce one-another, but according to the embodied principles can manifest differing approaches, also leading to diverging outcomes. Rooted in the European Coal and Steel Community, the EU has formed the Energy Union based on European cross-border infrastructure projects and facilitating regional and continental energy market integration. Through these measures EU-level institutions have strengthened their respective roles, attained legitimacy for further action, and have disseminated values underpinning their approach to state-building. This agenda has been underpinned by projects ranging from TEN-E/G to the Projects of Common Interest. In contrast, the formation of illiberal democratic states is marked by a push to nationalize energy companies and by extension infrastructure. An increased influence in the energy sector allows politicised price controls to be imposed or the continuance of a battle for self-sufficiency. Large domestic infrastructural investments, such as the Paks II nuclear reactor in Hungary or the ongoing push for a nuclear power plant in Poland, also reflect ambitions of the centralised control, technological advancement, and self-sufficiency embedded in the ideological convictions of Hungarian and Polish ruling governments. Moreover, the Polish insistence on maintaining reliance on domestically produced coal and quasi-legitimising it through inter alia COP24 also underpins the approach. In summary, the article compares and contrasts how state-building and state-led ideologies have been reflected in recent infrastructural ambitions led by EU-level institutions vis-a-vis Hungarian and Polish governments.