Climate change, natural gas and the rebirth of EU energy policy

It will come as a surprise to many outside observers that, until the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, more than fifty years after the Treaty of Rome, the EU lacked a formal common energy policy. This was all the more surprising given the crucial importance of this sector to the economy and society as a whole. Yet a concern with energy supply as a basis of economic growth and prosperity did play an important part in the early history of European economic integration. Two of the three Communities on which the Union is founded actually refer to a particular source of energy in their very names. The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was the first common market and supranational organisation for economic integration to be established by the six founding member states in 1952. The European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC), generally referred to as Euratom, was established by the same original members alongside the better-known European Economic Community (EEC) a few years later.