Poland: A new member state’s response to post-Lisbon EU energy security developments.

This paper considers Poland’s adaptation to EU energy security policy development, since accession in 2004, and how Warsaw has responded to and attempted to shape EU energy security policy. Reference is made to the Treaty of Lisbon and the energy ‘solidarity principle’, and both the Union’s external energy relations and the development of the internal energy market. Focusing on gas and through a conceptual lens of Europeanisation uploading, Poland’s post-accession role will be assessed through opportunities and mechanisms to participate in EU decision-making and shape EU energy security policy. Attention is paid to Poland’s role in shaping the Lisbon Treaty and subsequent utilisation of the ‘solidarity principle’, the development of a New EU-Russia Agreement and also preperations for Poland’s EU presidency where energy is an explicit priority. This will be examined within the context of four main issues that dominate the EU’s energy agenda: 1) EU dependency on gas imports, particularly from Russia; 2) dependency on a single gas transit route (Ukraine) that has been exposed as a security risk following major gas supply disruptions in 2006 and 2009; 3) an increase in global competition for gas resources and infrastructure investment; 4) a Russian foreign policy that is explicitly based on exploitation of energy resources and bilateral agreements with member states, rather than with the EU as a whole.