Europe energy policy and its Eastern Mediterranean strategy

The European Union is trying to harmonize and balance its energy security and decarbonization strategies under the pressure of climate change on the one hand and the pressure of supply security on the other. In recent years, the goal of building a carbon-free economy has reached a critical importance for contributing to energy supply security and for sustainable energy. The process of reconciling policies has made energy management mandatory within the EU on a local, regional and global scale. EU energy and climate management has become evident thanks to the 'Clean Energy Packages'. With the increase in power of the European Commission in the EU energy policy as a result of the Paris and Lisbon climate summits, decarbonization strategies under the structure of the Energy Union have gradually gained more importance and have started to produce binding results for member countries. With the Renewable Energy targets and Renewable Energy Directives, the EU has put forward an energy management mechanism. However, in line with these developments, some political conflicts have arisen between the EU energy policy and especially Eastern European countries with high fossil fuel dependency. The EU has set 2020, 2030 and 2050 energy and climate targets in its strategy to decarbonize the economy. Although reaching these targets with Renewable Energy Resources is the primary strategy, the fact that natural gas has less emission value compared to other fossil fuels has caused the EU to consider natural gas as a transitional energy source. In addition, the high dependence on natural gas of the EU causes it not to be an easily dispensable resource and adversely affect the security of supply. The EU put forward its natural gas diversification policy with the Southern Gas Corridor. In addition, the LNG demand and the opportunity to supply natural gas from a global market forced the EU to consider a different scope of energy management. The EU is trying to design the Eastern Mediterranean gas as another pillar of this policy. It is aimed to analyze the developing and enriching structure of the energy policy under the EU Energy Union label and to rearrange the priorities of the EU energy strategy by evaluating its changing axis. In addition, the results of the EU's geopolitical approach within the scope of external energy management have been revealed. The strategic reflection of the EU energy policy, where the market approach and geopolitical criticism started to come together, to the Eastern Mediterranean was evaluated. Keywords: European Union, European Comission, Energy, External Governance, Geopolitic, Eastern Mediterranean, LNG