Introduction: The European Union’s Governance in Central Asia – A Sectoral Approach

Something is shifting in the geopolitical tectonics of the international community. It is noticeable in the way that old alliances are abandoned, new ones are forged, and, perhaps most importantly, in the way in which the formerly established hegemony of the West has been cast adrift in recent years. Emerging powers such as Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa have long since ceased emerging and are now firmly established players on the global stage, as evidenced by the results of the fifteenth annual BRICS summit in August 2023, which saw historic commitments from the members to expand the alliance further in the near future (Kumar 2023). Coupled with the Russian war in Ukraine at the outskirts of the European borders and an onslaught of domestic issues related to energy, democratic backsliding, asylum policy, and the ripple effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the European Union has been forced to thoroughly recalibrate its foreign policies in response to these new realities on the ground. The union that has always taken pride in “leaving no one behind” is now struggling to keep up with the times itself and has taken to throwing its hat in the ring in regions previously neglected in order to maintain its international standing and promote its values and interests beyond its immediate vicinity. One of these regions is the Caspian Sea region, where the EU is actively investing in its energy diversification strategy. In fact, while the need for external energy imports was already estimated back in 2006 to exceed 70% by 2030, the rising demand and prices of oil and gas call for diplomatic efforts and high-level infrastructure such as Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreements or the Southern Gas Corridor, a mammoth project “spanning seven countries and six regulatory systems, linking 11 different investors, and supplying 12 different gas buyers, primarily in Europe” (Bayramli 2023, p. 2), which was finalised with the inauguration of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline in December 2021 (Geden and Marcelis 2006). What is more, the EU's involvement as a mediator in the peace negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan has recently made international headlines, when in September 2020 (and again in September 2023), hostilities erupted in the Nagorno-Karabakh border region and Brussels increased its presence in the region in order to secure its economic and political interests within the Eastern Partnership (Bayramov 2020).