Slovak EU Presidency and Energy Policy: From Top Priority to day-to-day Agenda

Slovakia held the presidency of the Council of the European Union for the very first time in the second half of 2016. Energy policy and related issues (such as energy security) had been planned to become a crucial item on the agenda long before the presidency was launched. However, this particular policy lost its priority for the Slovak presidency and eventually turned into a day-to-day issue (although a successful one). The policy was not included among the top priorities of the presidency’s programme and no major policy step – in the form of a new initiative or strong political impetus – was made in this period. The amount of work on energy policy agenda was similar to other agendas and therefore cannot be considered a sign of prioritisation, even though the presidency managed to make advancements in the energy policy area. The aim of the proposed paper is to discuss the reasons for this shift in the prioritisation of energy policy, which Slovak decision-makers perceive as one of the main policy preferences at the EU level. The paper discusses the concept of perceived vulnerability to explain the position of Central and Eastern European countries on EU energy policy integration. It uses interviews with Slovak representatives at both the national and EU level, as well as representatives of two other countries in the presidency trio (the Netherlands and Malta) and EU institutions.