The role of narratives in the discourse on energy security of the European Commission: The EU's transition in energy relations with Russia

The article analyses the discourse on energy security of the European Commission (EC) towards Russia in the period from 2014 to February 2022. The analysis is conducted on the basis of three identified narratives (the securitization narrative, the geopolitics narrative and the zero-sum game narrative). The same themes can be narrated and argued about differently within the discourse on energy security. But they always reflect the gradual deterioration of the energy relations. In these narratives, Russia is seen as a security threat (the securitisation narrative), a (great) power rival (the geopolitics narrative) and a player with interests antagonistic to those of the EU (the zero-sum game narrative). The EC seeks to portray Russia as an unsuitable partner for long-term energy cooperation and also seeks to influence the EU's activity in energy relations.

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