EUROPEISK INTEGRATION UNDER TIDER AV KRIS – SOLIDARITET ELLER EGENINTRESSE?

Sammanfattning: Energy politics has traditionally been considered a matter of national importance, as national governments have been keen on keeping control of the policy area. However, within the European Union (EU) energy policy has been subject of further European integration during the last decade, especially within the energy market. Furthermore, energy policy is still a special political area, as Member States of the EU have maintained control of their national energy mix and the security of supply aspect of energy politics, preventing further European integration within energy politics. Faced with the current energy crisis, the aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine the effect the pressures of the energy crisis have had on the European integration within energy politics, by using a qualitative literature analysis of policy documents from the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the European Council. The research question chosen to examine the phenomena is: what effects has the current energy crisis had on the European integration within energy politics? The theories of European integration; neofunctionalism, embedded intergovernmentalism and new intergovernmentalism composes a theoretical framework, which together with an analytical scheme is used to analyse the policy documents from the European institutions. The results reveal that deepening crisis has led to a unity among the European institutions to endorse further coordination within energy politics to ensure security of supply during the crisis. Thus, as new areas are being target of European integration and the supranational European institutions having an impact on the development, the theories of neofunctionalism and embedded intergovernmentalism offers the most reliable explanations of the development during the energy crisis.