EU ACTORNESS IN EXTERNAL ENERGY GOVERNANCE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE ENERGY UNION AND REPOWEREU

This thesis examines how the EU's shift from Russian pipeline gas to LNG after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine reshaped its actorness in energy governance. Applying Bretherton and Vogler's framework and a durability lens proposed here, it compares two episodes of Commission entrepreneurship, the Energy Union of 2015 and REPowerEU of 2022, across opportunity, presence, and capability. The three dimensions moved unevenly. Opportunity expanded sharply in 2022 but receded as the crisis eased. Presence proved more enduring, Europe's position in global LNG markets is locked in by long-term contracts. Capability, the persistent binding constraint, did not move, treaty limits on energy mix decisions, resistance to delegation, and entrenched preference divergence in the Council all held under the most severe supply emergency in decades. REPowerEU therefore represents intensification of an existing governance pattern, not evolution beyond it, the 2022 crisis exposed the ceiling of Commission authority rather than raising it.