The Future of Gas in the Energy Union: Managing Its Decline?

The story of gas in the European Union is a success story: starting from scratch in the sixties, it is representing today about 25% of the primary energy used in the European Union. In spite of a wide use in the EU and in the Energy Community countries and in spite of being the cleanest fossil fuel, gas seems to be a “mal aime” by the national and European decision makers, at least according to the gas industry. The latter is indeed worried to see coal and lignite remaining favoured for various questionable reasons by several countries. Others may say that gas industry has missed opportunities, being overconfident about the strengths of its product. This chapter examines more in-depth the position of gas in the European energy mix today and in the future, the functioning of the internal gas market and finally the key challenges facing gas in the Energy Union which should lead the European Union towards a low carbon economy, in line with the Paris Agreement of December 2015.