Acta Universitatis Danubius. Œconomica, Vol 9, No 4 (2013)

Abstract

The problematic of energy policy is nowadays widely disputed in the European Union community. In a global context characterized by highly and raising dependency of the economic activity on the energetic resources, the European authorities had launched a strategy in this sector which regards the problems of access to secure and affordable energy products. The aim of this paper is linked to the natural gas field of the European energetic concerns, and it assumes the high dependency of internal consumption on imports, more than half of the natural gas that is used in the 27 states comes from abroad. Ensuring a higher level of security in the supply is one of the goals that European Union wants to achieve on medium and long term. In these circumstances, actual measurements take into account different type of actions: stabilize relations with existing partner gas exporters (Russia, Algeria, Norway); diversification of transport routes coming from these countries, especially in the idea of trying to avoid transit countries (mainly Ukraine and Belarus); and finally opening discussions and investing in alternative routes which should transport the gas from new suppliers placed in the Caspian Sea or Central Asia region.