Енергетичний вектор зовнішньої політики країн Балтії: досвід для України

Abstract

The economic component of the EU foreign policy increasingly shapes the main motives in the decision-making process. The Baltic states, being EU member states for more than 10 years, in their foreign policy in the field of energy supply call on the EU to adopt decisions which would be really economically motivated and have political justification over the longer term. The lack of full integration of the Baltic States which could have included their accession to the EU single energy market back in 2004 led to a number of problems that the Baltic States were forced to overcome on their own at national level. The subject-matter of the article is relevant due to the availability of experience of the post-Soviet countries, which could be taken into account by Ukraine in view of a potential prospect of the EU membership. In order to identify the main failures of the Baltic states, before and after joining the EU, the author tried to analyze the so-called “homework” (EU requirements) for the membership candidates and the decisions adopted by the countries' leaders. The author also tried to analyze the Baltic states' actions which resulted in reaching the agreement on their integration to the EU energy market (Political Roadmap for synchronising the Baltic States' electricity grid with the continental European network by the target date of 2025) 14 years after the acces-sion to the EU. Besides, despite the ineffectiveness of the Baltic states' disagreement on the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia due to their common position have gained political weight among other EU member states. Ukraine can already hold high-level talks with the EU on the guarantees of the energy integration to single market to prevent the loss of the existing facilities, which still carry out the role of transit and export of gas to the EU countries. After all, any facility of cross-border importance has both economic and political nature.