Authors

Discussion

Following the Crimean crisis in 2014, European Union is struggling with the aim to reach a strategic shift in the energy policy, reducing external dependency – namely from Russia – and improving general efficiency in order to guarantee a reduction in geopolitical dependence from Russian supply.
Since the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis, in fact, Russia is using gas supply as a tool for geopolitical pressure towards transit countries of existing pipelines, threatening flow interruptions that could damage even western European economies.
The Energy Union initiative is the strategic project of European Union aimed at guaranteeing a secure, sustainable, competitive and affordable energy through five dimensions: security and solidarity, an integrated internal market, energy efficiency, decarbonization, and innovation.
Energy Union was launched in 2015 and had to face contradictory national strategies. In 2025 an Energy Union Task Force was launched by the EU Commissioner for Energy and Housing together with the Polish Presidency of the Council, aimed at revitalizing the project prioritizing diversification and resilience against hybrid threats from Russia.
Yet, for the V4 countries (Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary), the project represents a new occasion for fracturing the group's cohesion: historically reliant on Russian gas, V4 countries follow very different strategies for energy security, amid tensions between EU-wide decarbonization mandates and regional coal-centered economies.
Geographical positions, existing infrastructures, economic structures, socioeconomic context are nation-level elements able to strongly orient policies of single countries in different directions.
Starting from the research question related to how the initiative reshape V4 strategy, the paper aims at examining the geopolitical implications of the Energy Union project for V4 countries, with particular attention to inner cohesion of the group. Methodology will mix a comparison between V4 National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) and Energy Union action points, combining qualitative analysis of political debates with quantitative reading of Eurostat data. A strong attention will be paid to the single country policies, which led to clashes with European Commission (e.g. Hungary's nuclear deal with Russia, tensions between Czechia and Poland on mine extension, clashes between EC and Poland on coal phase-out, infringement proceedings against the Czech Republic for failing to submit the NECP).
Paper will identify main strategic directions for V4 countries, highlighting how the Energy Union exposes fault lines, transforming V4 from energy peripheries to strategic pivots, but exacerbating vulnerabilities in the global energy order, as Russia's war reshapes supply chains. Target of the paper is to foresee plausible scenarios for the group's future existence in EU context in a post-war supply landscape.<