Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xfwgj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T18:57:23.713Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The new politics of energy security and the rise of the catalytic state in southern Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2017

Andrea Prontera
Andrea Prontera*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Communication and International Relations, University of Macerata, Italy E-mail: andrea.prontera@unimc.it
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

European energy security has recently emerged as an important topic of scholarly attention. Many studies have scrutinised the political and institutional innovations triggered by the establishment of the European Union internal energy market and external energy policy. However, the literature indicates a particularly striking gap between growing research and concept development, and only recently have efforts been made to analyse this current dynamic more accurately. By focussing on the security of gas supply and liquefied natural gas development in France, Italy and Spain, and extending the model of the catalytic state to the energy-security realm, this article contributes to the empirical and conceptual debate. In particular, the article argues that the catalytic state model, which emphasises the active role of governments in a liberalised market structure and their wide participation in a networked pattern of energy diplomacy, is better equipped than the regulatory state model to capture the new European politics of energy security.

Keywords

catalytic stateenergy diplomacyenergy securityEuropean Uniongas marketregulatory state
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , December 2018 , pp. 511 - 551
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press, 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aalto, P. (ed.) (2007) The EU-Russian Energy Dialogue: Europe’s Future Energy Security . Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Aalto, P (2015) States and Markets in Energy Policy. In Belyi A. V. and Talus K. (eds.), States and Markets in Hydrocarbon Sectors. London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 40–60.Google Scholar
Aalto, P. and Korkmaz Temel, D. (2014) European Energy Security: Natural Gas and the Integration Process. Journal of Common Market Studies 52(4): 758–774.Google Scholar
Autorità per l’Energia Elettrica e il Gas (2004) Rapporto annuale 2004. AEEG, Milan.Google Scholar
Autorità per l’Energia Elettrica e il Gas (2005) Rapporto annuale 2005. AEEG, Milan.Google Scholar
Autorità per l’Energia Elettrica e il Gas (2006) Rapporto annuale 2006. AEEG, Milan.Google Scholar
Autorità per l’Energia Elettrica e il Gas (2007) Rapporto annuale 2007. AEEG, Milan.Google Scholar
Autorità per l’Energia Elettrica e il Gas (2008) Rapporto annuale 2008. AEEG, Milan.Google Scholar
Autorità per l’Energia Elettrica e il Gas (2009) Rapporto annuale 2009. AEEG, Milan.Google Scholar
Autorità per l’Energia Elettrica e il Gas (2011) Rapporto annuale 2011. AEEG, Milan.Google Scholar
Agranoff, R. and McGuire, M (2001) Big Questions in Public Network Management Research. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 11(3): 295–326.Google Scholar
Alao, A. (2011) Nigeria and the Global Powers: Continuity and Change in Policy and Perceptions. Occasional Paper No. 96, South African Foreign Policy and African Drivers Programme, October, Johannesburg.Google Scholar
Andersen, S. (1993) The Struggle Over North Sea Oil and Gas. Government Strategies in Denmark, Britain and Norway. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press.Google Scholar
Andersen, S. S., Goldthau, A. and Sitter, N. (2016) The EU Regulatory State, Commission Leadership and External Energy Governance. In Godzimirski J. M. (ed.), EU Leadership in Energy and Environmental Governance. London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 51–68.Google Scholar
Beblawi, H. and Luciani, G. (eds.) (1987) The Rentier State. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Boussena, S. and Locatelli, C. (2013) Energy Institutional and Organisational Changes in EU and Russia: Revisiting Gas Relations. Energy Policy 55: 180–189.Google Scholar
Cameron, P. (2008) LNG: Study on Interoperability of LNG Facilities and Interchangeability of Gas and Advice on the Opportunity to Set Up an Action Plan for the Promotion of LNG Chain Investments. Study for the European Commission DG, Bussels.Google Scholar
Caporaso, J. (1996) The European Union and Forms of State: Westphalian, Regulatory or Post‐Modern? Journal of Common Market Studies 34(1): 29–52.Google Scholar
Clift, B. (2014) Comparative Political Economy. States, Markets and Global Capitalism. London: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Colli, A., Mariotti, S. and Piscitello, L. (2014) Governments as strategists in designing global players: the case of European utilities. Journal of European Public Policy 21(4): 487–508.Google Scholar
Correlje, A. and van der Linde, C. (2006) Energy Supply Security and Geopolitics: A European Perspective. Energy Policy 34: 532–543.Google Scholar
Coticchia, F., Giacomello, G. and Sartori, N. (2011) Securing Italy’s Energy Supply and Private Oil Companies. In Giacomello G. and Verbeek B. (eds.), Italy’s Foreign Policy in the 21st Century: The New Assertiveness of an Aspiring Middle Power? New York: Lexington Books, 175–195.Google Scholar
Courtois, C. (2009) L’Etat s’oppose à un terminal méthanier en Gironde. Le Monde, 19 August 2009, http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2009/08/19/l-etat-s-oppose-a-un-terminal-methanier-en-gironde_1229822_3244.html. (accessed 12 April 2016).Google Scholar
Commission de Régulation de l’énergie (CRE) (2007) Activity Report 2007. CRE, Paris.Google Scholar
Commission de Régulation de l’énergie (CRE) (2008a) Activity Report 2008. CRE, Paris.Google Scholar
Commission de Régulation de l’énergie (CRE) (2008b) Report by the Working Group on the Regulation of LNG Terminals in France. CRE, Paris, April, http://gttm.cre.fr/ (accessed 24 June 2016).Google Scholar
Commission de Régulation de l’énergie (CRE) (2009) Activity Report 2009. CRE, Paris.Google Scholar
Della Porta, D. (2008) Comparative Analysis: Case-Oriented Versus Variable-Oriented Research. In Della Porta D. and Keating M. (eds.), Approaches and Methodologies in the Social Sciences: A Pluralist Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 198–222.Google Scholar
Di Giulio, M. (2016) Reshaping State Structure and Strategy: The Reform of Railway Policy in Germany and Italy. International Journal of Public Administration 39(3): 226–237.Google Scholar
Di Giulio, M. and Moro, F. N. (2016) The Internationalization of Network Industries: A Comparative Policy Analysis of Italian Railways and Utilities. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice 18(1): 21–37.Google Scholar
Duffield, J. S. (2015) ) Fuels Paradise: Seeking Energy Security in Europe, Japan, and the United States. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
ENI (2015) ENI in LNG, May, Rome.Google Scholar
Escribano, G. (2014) Spanish Energy Security in a Changing Scenario. Cuadernos de Estrategia 166: 93–124.Google Scholar
Estrada, J. and Kare, D. (eds.) (1995) The Development of European Gas Markets: Environmental, Economic and Political Perspectives. Chichester: John Wiley Publisher.Google Scholar
European Commission (2016) Commission Staff Working Document Accompanying the Document on An EU Strategy for Liquefied Natural Gas and Gas Storage. SWD(2016) 23 Final, Brussels.Google Scholar
Federico, G., Vives, X. and Fabra, N. (2008) Competition and Regulation in the Spanish Gas and Electricity Markets. Public-Private Sector Research Center, No. 1, November, Barcelona.Google Scholar
Finon, D. (1996) French Energy Policy: The Effectiveness and Limitations of Colbertism. In McGowan F. (ed.), European Energy Policies in a Changing Environment. Heidelberg: Springer, 21–56.Google Scholar
Finon, D. and Midttun, A. (eds.) (2004) Reshaping European Gas and Electricity Industries. Oxford: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Frappi, C. and Varvelli, A. (2010) Le strategie di politica energetica dell’Italia. Criticità interne e opportunità internazionali. Quaderni di Relazioni Internazionali 13: 98–114.Google Scholar
García, L. A. R. (2006) The Liberalisation of the Spanish Gas Market. Energy Policy 34(13): 1630–1644.Google Scholar
Ghilès, F. (1995) España Y El Gas Argelino. Política Exterior 9(44): 169–176..Google Scholar
GIIGNL (2011) The LNG Industry, Annual Report, GIIGNL, Neuilly-sur-Seine - France.Google Scholar
GIIGNL (2012) The LNG Industry, Annual Report, GIIGNL, Neuilly-sur-Seine - France.Google Scholar
GIIGNL (2016) The LNG Industry, Annual Report, GIIGNL, Neuilly-sur-Seine - France.Google Scholar
Gilardi, F. (2002) Policy Credibility and Delegation to Independent Regulatory Agencies: A Comparative Empirical Analysis. Journal of European Public Policy 9(6): 873–893.Google Scholar
Goldthau, A. and Sitter, N. (2014) A Liberal Actor in a Realist World? The Commission and the External Dimension of the Single Market for Energy. Journal of European Public Policy 21(10): 1452–1472.Google Scholar
Goldthau, A. and Sitter, N. (2015) A Liberal Actor in a Realist World. The European Union Regulatory State and the Global Political Economy of Energy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goldthau, A. and Witte, J. (eds.) (2010) Global Energy Governance: The New Rules of the Game. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Haney, A. B. and Pollitt, M. G. (2013) New Models of Public Ownership in Energy. International Review of Applied Economics 27(2): 174–192.Google Scholar
Hayes, M. H. (2006) The Transmed and Maghreb Projects: Gas to Europe from North Africa. In Victor D. G., Jaffe A. M. and Hayes M. H. (eds.), Natural Gas and Geopolitics. From 1970 to 2040. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 49–90.Google Scholar
Hayes, M. H. and Victor, D. G. (2006) Politics, Markets, and the Shift to Gas: Insights from the Seven Historical Case Studies. In Victor D. G., Jaffe A. M. and Hayes M. H. (eds.), Natural Gas and Geopolitics. From 1970 to 2040. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 319–353.Google Scholar
Held, D., McGrew, A. G., Goldblatt, D. and Perraton, J. (1999) Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Helm, D. (2005) The Assessment: The New Energy Paradigm. Oxford Review of Economic Policy 21(1): 1–18.Google Scholar
Herranz-Surrallés, A. (2015) European External Energy Policy: Governance, Diplomacy and Sustainability. In Aarstad A. K., Drieskens E., Jørgensen K. E., Laatikainen K. and Tonra B. (eds.), Sage Handbook of European Foreign Policy. London: Sage, 911–925.Google Scholar
Herranz-Surrallés, A. (2016) An Emerging EU Energy Diplomacy? Discursive Shifts, Enduring Practices. Journal of European Public Policy 23(9): 1386–1405.Google Scholar
Herranz-Surrallés, A. (2017) Energy Diplomacy Under Scrutiny: Parliamentary Control of Intergovernmental Agreements With Third-Country Suppliers. West European Politics 40(1): 183–201.Google Scholar
Hocking, B. (1999) Catalytic Diplomacy: Beyond “Newness” and “Decline”. In Melissen J. (ed.), Innovation in Diplomatic Practice. London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 21–42.Google Scholar
Honoré, A. (2011) The Spanish Gas Market: Demand Trends Post Recession and Consequences for the Industry. Oxford: Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, NG-55, July.Google Scholar
Honoré, A. (2013) The Italian Gas Market: Challenges and Opportunities. Oxford: Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, NG-76, June.Google Scholar
IEA (2009a) Energy Policies of IEA Countries, Spain 2009 Review, Paris.Google Scholar
IEA (2009b) Energy Policies of IEA Countries, France 2009 Review, Paris.Google Scholar
IEA (2014) Energy Policies of IEA Countries, Spain 2014 Review, Paris.Google Scholar
Jessop, B. (2002) The Future of the Capitalist State. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Keating, M. F., Kuzemko, C., Belyi, A. V. and Goldthau, A. (2012) Introduction: Bringing Energy into International Political Economy. In Kuzemko C., Belyi A. V., Goldthau A. and Keating M. F. (eds.), Dynamics of Energy Governance in Europe and Russia. London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 1–19.Google Scholar
King & Spalding (2015) LNG in Europe: An Overview of European Import Terminals in 2015, http://www.kslaw.com/imageserver/KSPublic/practice_areas/energy/LNG-In-Europe.pdf (accessed 10 November 2016).Google Scholar
Kirchner, E. and Berk, C. (2010) European Energy Security Co‐Operation: Between Amity and Enmity. Journal of Common Market Studies 48(4): 859–880.Google Scholar
Klijn, E. H. (2012) New Public Management and Governance: A Comparison. In Levi-Faur D. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 201–214.Google Scholar
Lind, M. (1992) The Catalytic State. National Interest 27: 3–12.Google Scholar
Lodge, M. (2002) Varieties of Europeanisation and the National Regulatory State. Public Policy and Administration 17(2): 43–67.Google Scholar
Luciani, G. and Mazzanti, M. R. (2006) Italian Energy Policy: The Quest for More Competition and Supply Security. International Spectator 41(3): 75–89.Google Scholar
Majone, G. (1996a) Regulating Europe. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Majone, G. (1996b) Temporal Consistency and Policy Credibility: Why Democracies Need Non-Majoritarian Institutions. Working Paper RSC No. 96/57, European University Institute, Florence.Google Scholar
Majone, G. (1997) From the Positive to the Regulatory State: Causes and Consequences of Changes in the Mode of Governance. Journal of Public Policy 17(2): 139–167.Google Scholar
Majone, G. and La Spina, L. (2000) Lo stato regolatore. Bologna: il Mulino.Google Scholar
Melly, P. and Darracq, V. (2013) A New Way to Engage? French Policy in Africa from Sarkozy to Hollande. Chatham House, May, http://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/files/chathamhouse/public/Research/Africa/0513pp_franceafrica.pdf. (accessed 18 July 2016).Google Scholar
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2009) Rapporto 2020. Le scelte di politica estera. Italian MFA, Rome.Google Scholar
Mišík, M. and Prachárová, V. (2016) Before “Independence” Arrived: Interdependence in Energy Relations Between Lithuania and Russia. Geopolitics 21(3): 1–26.Google Scholar
Mityc (2002) Secretaría General de Energía, Planificatión de los sectores de electricidad y gas 2002-2011. Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio, Madrid.Google Scholar
Mityc (2006) Secretaría General de Energía, Planificatión de los sectores de electricidad y gas 2002-2011, Revisión 2005-2011. Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio, Madrid.Google Scholar
Naylor, P. C. (2000) France and Algeria: A History of Decolonization and Transformation. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.Google Scholar
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2015) National Energy Security Strategy. Departamento de Seguridad National, Madrid, 20 July.Google Scholar
Oxford Business Group (2009) The Report. Qatar 2009. Oxford: Oxford Business Group.Google Scholar
Odell, J. (2001) Case Study Methods in International Political Economy. International Studies Perspectives 2(2): 161–176.Google Scholar
Padgett, S. (2011) Energy Co-Operation in the Wider Europe: Institutionalizing Interdependence. Journal of Common Market Studies 49(5): 1065–1087.Google Scholar
Pérez, F. A. and Vaquer i Fanés, J. (2008) Spain in the Genesis of Europe’s New Energy Policy. In Barbé E. (ed.), Spain in Europe 2004-2008, Monograph of the Observatory of European Foreign Policy, n. 4, February 2008. Bellaterra, Barcelona: Institut Universitari d’Estudis Europeus, 1–8.Google Scholar
Politi, J. (2014) Italy Renzi’s Pivots to Africa for Alternatives to Russian Gas. Financial Times, 5 December, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ed33efb6-7bcc-11e4-b6ab-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=uk#axzz4I0P9YAlf (accessed 10 September 2016).Google Scholar
Pollitt, M. G. (2016) New’ Models of Public Ownership in Energy. In Picot A., Florio M., Grove N. and Kranz J. (eds.), The Economics of Infrastructure Provisioning: The Changing Role of the State. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 387–405.Google Scholar
Prange-Gstöhl, H. (2009) Enlarging the EU’s Internal Energy Market: Why Would Third Countries Accept EU Rule Export? Energy Policy 37(12): 5296–5303.Google Scholar
Proedrou, F. (2012) EU Energy Security in the Gas Sector: Evolving Dynamics, Policy Dilemmas and Prospects. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Prontera, A. (2015) Italian Energy Security, the Southern Gas Corridor and the New Pipeline Politics in Western Europe: From the Partner State to the Catalytic State. Journal of International Relations and Development, http://doi:10.1057/jird.2015.31 (published online: 14 August 2015).Google Scholar
Prontera, A. (2017) Forms of state and European energy security: diplomacy and pipelines in Southeastern Europe. European Security, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2017.1313233 (published online: 09 Apr 2017).Google Scholar
Randall, S. J. (2005) United States Foreign Oil Policy Since World War I: For Profits and Security. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s Press-MQUP.Google Scholar
Schmidt, V. A. (2009) Putting the Political Back Into Political Economy by Bringing the State Back in Yet Again. World Politics 61(3): 516–546.Google Scholar
Schmidt, V. A. (2012) What Happened to the State-Influenced Market Economies? France, Italy, and Spain Confront the Crisis as the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. In Grant W. and Wilson G. K. (eds.), The Consequences of the Global Financial Crisis: The Rhetoric of Reform and Regulation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 156–186.Google Scholar
Shepherd, R. and Ball, J. (2006) Liquefied Natural Gas From Trinidad and Tobago: The Atlantic LNG Project. In Victor D. G., Jaffe A. M. and Hayes M. H. (eds.), Natural Gas and Geopolitics: From 1970 to 2040. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 268–318.Google Scholar
Skalamera, M. (2015) Italy’s Path to Gas Liberalisation: Corporate Power, Monopoly Distortions and the Russia Factor. Contemporary Italian Politics 7(2): 161–184.Google Scholar
Skelcher, C. (2005) Public-Private Partnerships and Hybridity. In Ferlie E., Laurence E. L. and Pollitt C. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Public Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 347–370.Google Scholar
Skelcher, C. (2010) Governing Partnerships. In Hodge G., Greve C. and Boardman A. (eds.), International Handbook on Public-Private Partnerships. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 292–304.Google Scholar
Sovacool, B. and Sidorstov, R. (2013) Energy Governance in the United States. In Goldthau A. (ed.), The Handbook of Global Energy Policy. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 435–456.Google Scholar
Stern, J. (1990) European Gas Markets: Challenge and Opportunity in the 1990s. London: Dartmouth Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Stopford, J. and Strange, S. (1991) Rival States, Rival Firms: Competition for World Market Shares. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Talus, K. (2013) EU Energy Law and Policy: A Critical Account. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Thatcher, M. (2007) Regulatory Agencies, the State and Markets: A Franco-British Comparison. Journal of European Public Policy 14(7): 1028–1047.Google Scholar
Umbach, F. (2010) Global Energy Security and the Implication for the EU. Energy Policy 38(3): 1229–1240.Google Scholar
Wälde, T. W. (2008) US Foreign Oil Policy Since World War I–For Profits and Security. The Journal of World Energy Law & Business 1(1): 113–117.Google Scholar
Walker, W. (2000) Entrapment in Large Technology Systems: Institutional Commitment and Power Relations. Research Policy 29(7–8): 833–846.Google Scholar
Weiss, L. (1998) The Myth of the Powerless State. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Weiss, L. (1999) Globalization and National Governance: Antinomy or Interdependence? . Review of International Studies 25(5): 59–88.Google Scholar
Weiss, L. (2010) Globalization and the Myth of the Powerless State. In Ritzer G. and Ataly Z. (eds.), Readings in Globalization. Key Concepts and Major Debates. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 166–175.Google Scholar
Westphal, K. (2006) Energy Policy Between Multilateral Governance and Geopolitics: Whither Europe? Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft 4: 44–62.Google Scholar
Youngs, R. (2009) Energy Security: Europe’s New Foreign Policy Challenge. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Zarco-Jasso, H. (2005) Public–Private Partnerships: A Multidimensional Model for Contracting. International Journal of Public Policy 1(1–2): 22–40.Google Scholar