The Importance of East Mediterranean Gas for EU Energy Security: The Role of Cyprus, Israel and Egypt.

This paper analyzes the challenges facing EU's energy security in the natural gas sector since 2013. Despite the improvement of the Union's internal policy coordination, interconnectivity and market integration, the EU is becoming increasingly dependent on its existing primary supplier, Russia's Gaz prom, while at the same time alternative sources of gas have become less reliable because of their associated political risk. In this regard, Mediterranean supplies were particularly affected by the 2011 Arab Revolutions. The paper argues that the new gas discoveries of the Eastern Mediterranean could transform the region to a new source of simultaneous supply and transit diversification for the EU. In this context the paper analyzes the gas policies of Egypt, Israel and Cyprus to illustrate their net export capacities while highlighting the evolution of EU energy policy making vis-à-vis the Eastern Med since 2014. It concludes with a comparative analysis of the different export options for the evacuation of East Med Gas to the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]