On September 25 the Financial Times published a letter from Alexander Medvedev, Gazprom’s deputy chairman, trumpeting his company’s dedication to deepening Europe’s “energy security”. When Russia and other petro-states are eager to market themselves on this concept, we have a serious problem of definition. Whose security, we must ask, are we talking about?
In the European Union, energy security has gradually become a misnomer: a concept that has been rhetorically hijacked to empower suppliers and constrain the options of importers. Countless bad policies have been designed in the name of this gospel imperative, resulting in a radical fall in competition, an increase in political vulnerability and a general erosion of the rule of law.
