Since its seminal origins in the European Coal and Steel Community, EU market
integration has been advancing in the field of energy as in the wider economy.
However, Russian gas cutoffs to Europe in 2006 and 2009 served as a stark
reminder that many member states remain vulnerable in terms of the physical
security of their foreign energy inflows, a glaring Achilles heel of the EU that
has risen to unprecedented prominence on its policymaking agenda. Turkey, an EU
candidate member, has been emerging as a new and potentially more stable and
independent ‘corridor’ for a wider diversity of pipeline-based hydrocarbon
exports to the European market. This book offers a freshly provocative look at
the nexus linking EU security, trans-Turkey energy supply routes to Europe and
Turkey’s EU membership negotiations, arguing that Europe’s collective energy
security prospects have become increasingly tied to Turkey’s progress towards
joining the EU.