Ústav mezinárodních vztahů

Introduction

The current crisis between the West and Russia and the military conflict in Ukraine have rendered the West’s future relations with Russia uncertain. Also, since Ukraine is a main transit country for Russian oil and gas, the conflict in Ukraine might threaten European energy security. Questions about the security of energy supplies loom large against the background of the two previous gas crises between Russia and Ukraine, which, in 2006 and 2009, led to cutbacks of gas supplies to the members of the European Union (eu). On the other hand, the current crisis, which provided an additional impetus to the eu in its diversification efforts, creates new opportunities for potential new suppliers.

In this context, ofcials from the Islamic Republic of Iran (iri), a country which sits on the largest natural gas reserves, have repeatedly declared that Iran is able and willing to supply large quantities of its gas to Europe.

Since the early 1990s the eu-iri relations have gone through various stages that have been characteriSed by phases of cooperation as well as phases of confrontation. While the period between the 1990s and the early 2000s was characterised by the eu’s attempts to engage Iran in a constructive dialogue on a number of issues, including energy, in the second half of the first decade of the 21st century we can clearly see a decline of the eu-iri relations. However, today, the eu is again trying to improve its relations with Iran.

The objective of this article is to identify and specify the main criteria for the eu’s actorness in its energy policy (primary in the area of natural gas) and to analyse the external dimension of this policy towards the iri. These objectives are attained through answering two questions: (1) how do the criteria of the eu actorness relate to the external dimension of the energy policy towards Iran? (2) Can the eu be considered as an actor of the energy relations with Iran and if yes, what is the extent of this actorness?

In order to achieve the stated objective and answer the research questions, it is necessary to analyse the internal dimension of the eu energy policy and its external dimension vis-à-vis Iran. As will be explained the degree of actorness depends on the delegation of competences to the European Union institutions, primary to the European Commission (ec) and on the format of the negotiations with third parties. In different policy areas the degree of actorness can vary.

Thus the extent of the independence of the eu institutions in the area of the internal energy market will influence the degree of actorness in the relations with Iran. Also, external environment can influence the degree of actorness. If policy issues related to the area of Common Foreign and Security Policy (cfsp) supersede the energy agenda we can expect a low level of actorness since the extent of delegation in the cfsp is rather limited.

The basic assumption of this article is that the actorness of the eu in the area of the energy relations with Iran is not only drawn from the aspects of the internal and external energy policy, but is also based on the Common Foreign and Security Policy. At the same time, this article assumes that the actorness of the European Union depends on the ability of the European Commission to formulate a debate about

the interactions with external actors, yet in the case of the external dimension of the eu energy policy towards Iran this actorness is rather limited.

In its theoretical dimension the present article is based on a combination of the agency theory, social constructivism1 and their relation to the European Union actorness. According to constructivist theoreticians, the eu actorness must be understood as a social construct between stakeholders2 based on the principle of the shared understanding of the European Union as the actor that has its own role to play.

The structure of the present article is as follows. The first part presents concept actorness and its relation to agency theory. The second part analyses the internal dimension of the eu energy policy. Next section determines the extent of actorness in that field. The final part of the article analyses dimensions of actorness in the external energy relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

You can read the whole article of Lukáš Tichý and Nikita Odintsov here. The article was published in the Central European Journal of International and Security Studies (CEJISS), Volume 9, Issue 4, 2015.