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Italian energy security, the Southern Gas Corridor and the new pipeline politics in Western Europe: from the partner state to the catalytic state

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Abstract

The establishment of the internal energy market and the development of the European Union’s (EU) external energy policy have challenged the longstanding politics of Western European energy security, particularly in the gas sector. The traditional institutional structure was based mainly on a combination of national politics and bilateral energy diplomacy, with a ‘national champion’ responsible for securing the supply of each country independently; this structure is currently under a process of transformation. The Italian gas sector provides a useful example to examine the emerging national and foreign politics of energy security in EU member states. The old pipeline politics and energy diplomacy of Italy are contrasted with the new strategy, exemplified by the government involvement in the development of the Southern Gas Corridor and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline. The model of the ‘catalytic state’ is shown to be the most appropriate model to describe the role of member states in the new institutional structure related to the security of the EU’s gas supply.

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Notes

  1. Italy is involved in the North–South gas interconnections in Western Europe (NSI West Gas), the North-–South gas interconnections in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe (NSI East Gas), and in the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) (see Regulation No. 347/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 17 April, 2013, on guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure).

  2. For the basic features of the historical institutionalism, see Steinmo (2008).

  3. With the exception of the United Kingdom, which has long since differed from the Continental European market and which is not considered in this article.

  4. Western consumer countries, such as Italy and Spain, had to work to facilitate the cooperation of Algeria, with Tunisia and Morocco, respectively, to construct the Transmed and the Maghreb–Europe Gas Pipeline.

  5. The concept of the partner state is derived from Andersen (1993).

  6. After 1983, three decisions favoured the diffusion of gas in the domestic market: natural gas for heating purposes was taxed at a much lower rate than diesel fuel, in order to encourage substitution between the two products; subsidies were granted to build urban gas district networks; and ENI was allowed to sell natural gas to ENEL for electricity production at a price that was equal to (and even a bit lower than) that of heavy fuel (De Paoli 1996).

  7. See the declarations of ENI’s CEO, Vittorio Mincato, in ‘Mincato: troppa offerta di gas, il mercato è a rischio’ [Mincato: too much gas supply, the market is under risk], in Corriere della Sera, 27 March, 2003.

  8. See Law No. 239 of 23 August, 2004 (the so-called ‘Marzano Decree’).

  9. Accordo intergovernativo tra la Repubblica Italiana e la Repubblica democratica e popolare di Algeria relativo al gasdotto tra l’Algeria e l’Italia attraverso la Sardegna (Galsi) [Intergovernmental agreement between Italy and Algeria for the realization of the Galsi pipeline], 16 November, 2007.

  10. See ‘Rapporto 2020. Le scelte di politica estera’ [Report 2020: Choices of Foreign Policy], Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rome.

  11. In January, 2011, after President Barroso signed the ‘EU-Azeri Joint Declaration on the Southern Gas Corridor’ to support Nabucco, the Italian minister in charge of energy, Paolo Romani, called for more intergovernmental coordination among the major EU member states (i.e., France, Germany and Italy), in order to challenge the approach of the European Commission and to defend Italian pipeline projects (see http://it.reuters.com/article/idITMIE70K0G420110121).

  12. In the following years the composition of the Shah Deniz II consortium has changed (in 2013 Statoil sold a 10 per cent share to British Petroleum and Socar, in 2014 Total sold its 10 per cent to Tpao and Statoil sold its remaining 15.5 per cent to Petronas).

  13. See the statement of Leonid Chugunov, technical project manager of Gazprom (‘Gasdotto South Stream, dal progetto scompare la variante Bulgaria-Grecia-Italia’ [South Stream: the Bulgaria-Greece-Italy route disappears from the project], in Il Sole 24 Ore, 8 November, 2012).

  14. See the ENI Fact Book 2013.

  15. See ‘Renzi leads belated effort in support of South Stream’ (available at http://www.euractiv.com/sections/global-europe/renzi-leads-belated-effort-support-south-stream-302684, accessed 12 July, 2015). After a visit to Moscow in July, 2014, the Italian Foreign Minister, Federica Mogherini, declared that the South Stream was ‘very important for the energy security of our country, as well as that of the entire European area’. However, she stressed that the project should comply with the EU law (‘Italian EU presidency backs South Stream’, in Euobserver, 10 July, 2014, available at http://euobserver.com/economic/124930, accessed 12 July, 2015).

  16. See the joint press release by the Italian Minister of Economic Development and the Greek government, in Il Sole 24 Ore, 21 February, 2012.

  17. See the interview with the External Affairs Director of the TAP, available at http://www.naturalgaseurope.com/michael-hoffmann-tap-europe-energy-security (accessed 12 July, 2015).

  18. See the press accounts, available at http://www.naturalgaseurope.com/mediterranean-states-back-key-gas-pipeline (accessed 12 July, 2015).

  19. See the interview with the Italian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, available at http://www.neurope.eu/article/italian-deputy-fm-we-have-many-priorities-balkans-interview (accessed 12 July, 2015).

  20. ‘Joint Statement of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy and Montenegro’, Dubrovnik, 12 June, 2013.

  21. For example, see the press release of the Italian government, available at http://www.palazzochigi.it/Notizie/Palazzo%20Chigi/dettaglio.asp?d=72550 (accessed 12 July, 2015).

  22. See the press accounts, available at http://www.lecceprima.it/cronaca/incontro-no-tap-forti-contestazioni-il-governo-subissato-di-fischi.html (accessed 12 July, 2015) and the official report of the Puglia region, ‘Confronto pubblico tra comunità locali, governo nazionale e Trans-Adriatic Pipeline’ [Public debate among local communities, national government and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline], available at http://partecipazione.regione.puglia.it/ (accessed 12 July, 2015).

  23. See ‘Puglia, la Regione boccia per la seconda volta il gasdotto Tap’ [Puglia, Regional government rejects TAP project for the second time], in Il Sole 24 Ore, 14 January, 2014.

  24. See ‘Ue chiede a Italia di accelerare su Tap’ [EU asks Italy to accelerate with TAP] (ansa.it, 13 June, 2014) and ‘Cos’è il gasdotto Tap, al centro dell’incontro Renzi-Aliyev’ [Tap at the core of Renzi-Aliyev meeting], available at http://www.europaquotidiano.it/2014/07/13/trans-adriatic-pipeline/ (accessed 12 July, 2015).

  25. See the press accounts, available at http://www.repubblica.it/argomenti/gasdotto (accessed 12 July, 2015). The dialogue between the TAP and local governments to locate the end point of the pipeline had already been initiated several years before (see the statements of the TAP representative during the public hearings at the Committee on Industry of the Italian Senate, 30 July, 2013, available at http://webtv.senato.it/4191?video_evento=332, accessed 12 July, 2015).

  26. See ‘La commissione nazionale Via autorizza il gasdotto Tap nel Salento’ [National EIA Commission authorizes the realization of TAP in Salento], in Il Sole 24 Ore, 29 August, 2014, and ‘Ok al gasdotto Tap Renzi: è sbloccato’ in Il Sole 24 Ore [OK to Tap pipeline, Renzi: the project is unlocked], 30 August, 2014.

  27. Comment by a representative of the TAP consortium made at a seminar on ‘The development of the Southern Gas Corridor and the Italian energy interests’, organised by the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in cooperation with the TAP consortium, Rome, 24 June, 2011 (cited in Sartori 2013: 2).

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  1. Department of Political Science, Communication and International Relations, University of Macerata, Via Don Minzoni, 2, Macerata, 62100, Italy

    Andrea Prontera

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Prontera, A. Italian energy security, the Southern Gas Corridor and the new pipeline politics in Western Europe: from the partner state to the catalytic state. J Int Relat Dev 21, 464–494 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/jird.2015.31

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