European energy security

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Energy security has shot to the top of the EU’s foreign policy agenda. A plethora of new energy partnerships has been or is being put in place, from Africa, through the Middle East, to Central Asia. However, these partnerships address energy security from a relatively narrow, technical perspective. Policy-makers in Brussels acknowledge that a key ‘emerging need’ is a better understanding of the relationship between energy imperatives on the one hand, and policies related to development, good governance and democracy promotion on the other hand.

It is crucial that decisions and policies on emerging matters are based on good research and sound evidence. Moreover, the public debate needs to be informed by research voices. European Development Co-operation to 2020 therefore aims at improving EU policy makers' and other societal actors' shared understanding of emerging challenges facing EU development policy and external action. The three-year project is funded by the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) of the European Union and organised around three major topics.  This project  is led by EADI with a strong research contribution from FRIDE.  For further information please see EDC2020 page.

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