This policy brief was written for INRL20160 Introduction to EU Politics at University College Dublin during the 2025/26 academic year. The module asks students to identify a live problem on the EU agenda, weigh the options open to the Union, and set out concrete recommendations. The brief is reproduced here as submitted.
Executive Summary
Energy security in the European Union (EU) is a key issue that has been largely ignored in preference for focusing more on increasing the production of energy by renewable sources as opposed to reducing the Union’s reliance on imported energy sources. This can be seen when comparing the increase in renewable energy sources[1] compared to the levels of imported energy sources[2]. Overall, the percentage of renewable energy sources has increased meaning that imported and nonrenewable energy sources have decreased, however when looking at the actual amount of energy imported, it has only slightly decreased in net mass since 2021. This suggests that Europe’s increased investment in renewable energy has not taken the place of imported energy sources, reducing Europe’s energy security because of this reliance.
The primary recommendation for how to best minimize this issue would be rather than only focusing on the expansion of renewable energy projects within the EU, such as with The European Green Deal, and there need to be programs focusing on the energy security of the EU and scaling back of imports of energy. One area of recommendation towards policy that is not being taken advantage of as much as renewables would be nuclear energy[3]. Ultimately a focus on increased energy production within the EU alongside incentives to decrease imports of energy sources from a singular source and a further diversification of who the EU imports from would be an effective overall strategy in maintaining energy security within the Union.
Context and Importance
Currently, the EU finds itself in a rapidly changing world. The first signs of this came following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as the Union was unable to respond do to its reliance on importing Russian energy, on this front however, efforts have been made to reduce the EU’s reliance on Russian energy[4] and the Union has also diversified its import partners, however there is still reliance on Russia for certain imports such as natural gas. This means that despite the EU’s current efforts to minimize imports from adversarial nations, there is still a reliance on trade for energy imports from them. Alongside this, the EU is importing only about 6 million tonnes of energy products[5] or less than a 10% difference in imports from 2021 to Q2 of 2025. This further highlights the issue of reliance on energy imports as little has been done comparatively over four years to try and cut down on imports.
Another aspect of energy imports that goes hand in hand with the issue of imports of Russian natural gas would be the EU’s reliance on the United States for petroleum oils, liquefied natural gas, and coal imports, with the most impactful of these imports being of liquefied natural gas as it accounts for over 57% of the EU’s imports of it are from the United States, alongside with liquefied natural gas being the largest volume of energy imports[6]. With the United States’ recent aggression towards the EU in the form of across-the-board tariffs on goods once again shows how reliant the imported energy market is on certain importers.
Critique of Policy Options
The main policy in the EU related to energy right now would be The European Green Deal, which primarily focuses on promoting renewable and green energy and offers very little concrete details on how to reduce the EU’s reliance on non-renewable energy sources such as imports[7]. This is one of the primary reasons that the EU finds itself in this energy security crisis since net imports of energy have fallen very little in the past 4 years alongside the lack of diverse trading partners making the EU reliant on countries that have large stakes in their imports of energy[8]. Alongside the largely green energy focused deal, the EU has largely written off expanding its nuclear energy capacity. This is apparent when examining the EU’s level of nuclear energy production, which as of June 2025 was its second highest producer at 21.6% of electricity in the EU, just behind solar at 22%[9], and that they only plan to expand nuclear energy capacity by about 10% by the year 2050[10]. These two factors, a lack of acknowledgement of the EU’s reliance on energy imports from large trading partners coupled with the lack of planned investment in nuclear energy despite its importance in energy production are the main issues with the EU’s energy security.
Policy Recommendations
The two primary areas of policy recommendation for the EU to gain increased levels of energy security would be in its reliance on imported energy sources and in its investment in nuclear energy. For the former, a strategy of diversification in imported energy sources that see large levels of trading with a single source would be an important step in energy security, but to go further, an additional section of The European Green Deal could include a divestment from imported energy, as currently there is little in terms of getting off the reliance of imports. For the latter issue around nuclear energy, only 13 countries within the EU produced nuclear energy that accounted for 22.8% of the electricity generated in the EU in 2023 and as of 2023, nuclear power accounted for a little over 22% of the EU’s energy generation, however capacity is only planned to expand by barely over 10% over the next 50 years from 98 GWe (Gigawatts energy) to 109 GWe so a policy of expanding and improving nuclear energy generation could greatly benefit the union through investment in new nuclear projects[11]. The primary risk with this increased investment in nuclear energy is that about 30% of Europe’s enriched uranium and plutonium comes from Russia and about 46% from the United Kingdom in 2023, increasing the risk of overreliance[12]. Ultimately these two areas of energy in the EU have the greatest opportunity for change and improvement that could help the Union become more independent in its energy generation.
Notes
[1] “Solar: Main Source of EU Electricity in June with 22%.” Solar: main source of EU electricity in June with 22% – News articles – Eurostat, September 29, 2025. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20250929-3. Accessed October 7, 2025.
[2] “Statistics Explained.” EU imports of energy products – latest developments – Statistics Explained – Eurostat. Accessed October 7, 2025. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=EU_imports_of_energy_products_-_latest_developments.
[3] “Nuclear Investment Needs.” Energy. Accessed October 7, 2025. https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/nuclear-energy/nuclear-investment-needs_en.
[4] “Addressing the EU Energy Crisis: Challenges and Strategic Responses in 2025 and beyond: Blog: ASUENE: The Enterprise Climate Cloud Platform: Carbon Calculation Decarbonizated SAAS.” ASUENE. Accessed October 8, 2025. https://asuene.com/us/blog/addressing-the-eu-energy-crisis-challenges-and-strategic-responses-in-2025-and-beyond.
[5] “Statistics Explained.” EU imports of energy products, Accessed October 8, 2025.
[6] “Statistics Explained.” EU imports of energy products, Accessed October 9, 2025.
[7] “The European Green Deal.” European Commission. Accessed October 10, 2025. https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en.
[8] “Statistics Explained.” EU imports of energy products, Accessed October 10, 2025.
[9] “Solar: Main Source of EU Electricity in June with 22%.” Solar: main source of EU electricity in June with 22% – News articles – Eurostat, September 29, 2025. Accessed October 10, 2025.
[10] “Nuclear Investment Needs.” Energy. Accessed October 10, 2025.
[11] “Nuclear Investment Needs.” Energy. Accessed October 10, 2025.
[12] “European Union Enriched Uranium and Plutonium and Their Compou Imports by Country.” European Union Enriched uranium and plutonium and their compou imports by country | 2023 | Data. Accessed November 7, 2025. https://wits.worldbank.org/trade/comtrade/en/country/EUN/year/2023/tradeflow/Imports/partner/ALL/product/284420.
Bibliography
“Addressing the EU Energy Crisis: Challenges and Strategic Responses in 2025 and beyond: Blog: ASUENE: The Enterprise Climate Cloud Platform: Carbon Calculation Decarbonizated SAAS.” ASUENE. Accessed October 8, 2025. https://asuene.com/us/blog/addressing-the-eu-energy-crisis-challenges-and-strategic-responses-in-2025-and-beyond.
“The European Green Deal.” European Commission. Accessed October 10, 2025. https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en.
“Nuclear Investment Needs.” Energy. Accessed October 7, 2025. https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/nuclear-energy/nuclear-investment-needs_en.
“Solar: Main Source of EU Electricity in June with 22%.” Solar: main source of EU electricity in June with 22% – News articles – Eurostat, September 29, 2025. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20250929-3.
“Statistics Explained.” EU imports of energy products – latest developments – Statistics Explained – Eurostat. Accessed October 7, 2025. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=EU_imports_of_energy_products_-_latest_developments.
“European Union Enriched Uranium and Plutonium and Their Compou Imports by Country.” European Union Enriched uranium and plutonium and their compou imports by country | 2023 | Data. Accessed November 7, 2025. https://wits.worldbank.org/trade/comtrade/en/country/EUN/year/2023/tradeflow/Imports/partner/ALL/product/284420.
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