The External Dimension of the EU Internal Market and its Effect on the Russian Gas Sector

On 8 April 2021 (13.00-14.30), the Centre for Regulation and Enforcement in Europe (RENFORCE) will organize a webinar by inviting Natasha A. Georgiou who gives a lecture on: ‘discourse in the narrative of the EU’s value-based agenda in international trade and its external energy relations: the external dimension of the EU internal market and its effect on the Russian gas sector’.

The presentation will be based on Natasha’s Georgiou research which examines the extent to which the Union’s internal market can be said to have been externalised, given the extraterritorial implications of the Union’s internal energy market rules and regulations. Natasha’s research investigates the exercise and control of EU regulatory power beyond EU borders by examining the cross-border reach of the Union’s regulatory power beyond its boundaries given its implications for Gazprom and Russia’s interests on the European market. In particular, the research examines: (i) the Third Energy Package (TEP)’s ownership unbundling rules; (ii) the Third Country Clause; (iii) the Union’s Competition law (given the recent decision of the EU Competition investigation of Gazprom’s sales in Central and Eastern Europe); and (iv) the Commission’s amendment to the Gas Directive. In undertaking this analysis, the research considers to what extent the TEPs’ ownership unbundling; the Third Country Clause; the EU’s Competition law and Gas Directive amendment have become significant mechanisms in the Union’s toolbox of instruments to further its law-based approach and market-based agenda.

Dr Natasha A. Georgiou is a Research Fellow at the Wits School of Global Governance (WSG) in Johannesburg South Africa and a former Doctoral Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES) in Oxford. Natasha was recently awarded her PhD from the University of Reading, School of Law where she is a Sessional Lecturer on the LLM programme. Whilst undertaking her PhD, Natasha was a Visiting Scholar at the Law Department of the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence and Research Fellow / Consultant at the Energy Charter in Brussels.

The webinar is organised by RENFORCE’s research group on the EU’s value-based international trade law and policies.

Additional information and registration: https://www.uu.nl/agenda/webinar-the-external-dimension-of-the-eu-internal-market-and-its-effect-on-the-russian-gas-sector