In Search of the Golden Ratio: The Conundrum of Balancing Environmental Protection and Energy Security

The European Union (EU) is facing the dual challenge of ensuring energy security and compliance with environmental commitments in the wake of geopolitical upheaval. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine prompted a reassessment of the EU’s energy situation and revealed the intricate web of connections between energy and environmental policies. To address this unprecedented crisis, the EU launched the REPowerEU plan, representing a big step towards energy transition and reducing dependency on Russian fossil fuels.Amidst the urgency of addressing energy security, the challenge of avoiding environmental deregulation comes to the forefront and there is an imperative need to find the right legal tools to conduct a delicate balancing exercise ensuring that energy security measures align with the commitment to environmental sustainability.In this direction, this paper examines the impact of the REPowerEU plan and its accompanying legislative instruments on EU Environmental Law, focusing on Regulation (EU) 2023/435, Directive 2018/2001, and Council Regulation 2022/2577. It explores whether these legislative amendments present an impermissible retreat from environmental standards and considers ways to manage the challenges of balancing environmental protection with energy security, with the application of the emerging principle of nonregression.