3 - Energy Governance

Summary

This chapter looks at the process of restructuring of energy governance in CEE countries, focusing on common patterns and differences in terms of market opening, competition and patterns of ownership. Here it maps efforts towards the liberalisation of the energy sector and explains the enduring variation in political and economic institutions across countries. The challenge of liberalising energy markets while ensuring energy security is discussed in more detail, looking in particular at the implications for the complicated relationship with Russia. Finally, the chapter asks to what extent this restructuring, however incomplete, has permitted an opening of the structure of energy governance to new actors.