EU-Energy Policy with the EU’s Neighbourhood. An obstacle to democratic practices between the EU and the EaP countries?

International Energy Policy is commonly perceived to primarily leverage instruments such as investment commitments, consumption agreements, and supply contracts. This realm is often viewed skeptically that it is primarily motivated by geopolitical factors, cost-benefit calculations, or a combination of both. Thus, international energy cooperation seems to be characterised by power calculations and less driven by joint norms of exchange and interaction. In the case of EU energy policy towards the EU’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, however, the Union's energy policy is embedded within its overarching external democracy policy. This holds particularly true given that Energy Policy has been a fundamental centrepiece of the EaP strategy since its inception. Fields of interaction relate to issues of energy security, connectivity, renewable energy, energy efficiency, climate change, and nuclear safety. These domains signal conflicting interests between the EU and the EaP countries, revealing disparities in capacities or power dynamics among the involved actors. The paper considers the diverse landscape presented by the six EaP countries. The suspension of interaction with the EU by Belarus, the transition of Ukraine and Moldova to the accession candidate track, and Georgia’s invitation, have even increased this diversity. Futhermore the energy mix in the EaP region is of varying interest for the EU’s own energy supply. Moreover, the process of energy unbundling from Russia contributes to further diversification. Against the background of these considerations, it seems less likely that interaction between the EU and the EaP countries are to be characterised by democratic practices.It is the ambition of this paper to take stock of the practices of interaction, which the EU’s Energy Policy towards EaP countries show and to identify patterns of (non)democratic practices. In doing so, the paper applies the conceptual groundwork elaborated within SHAPEDEM-EU (https://shapedem-eu.eu/). Based on a qualitative document analysis, we study the pathways of energy cooperation since the launching of the EaP. As part of the paper, we provide a case study on Azerbaijan.