EUROPE ENERGY SECURITY: THE GAS SECTOR DIVERSIFICATION CHALLENGE. THE SOUTHERN CORRIDOR AND THE ROLE OF ITALY, A REGIONAL APPROACH.

The importance the international community gives to energy security nowadays, and the relevance it has acquired during the last decades, due to the lessening of national energy sources, represents a crucial issue for the development of a concrete and unified EU energy policy. The concern with which scientists, politicians, scholars etc. look towards current geopolitical evolutions, suggest a careful re-examination of this concept. Through an in-depth analysis of multiple studies and works, with the aim of rethought this crucial and central concept in the context of south-east Europe, this thesis tries to individuate how energy-dependence linkages between EU and non-EU actors can be such a problematic issue for the European natural gas market. Taking into account the significant growing of energy demand for most of the state in the EU, specific attention will be given to the incomplete process of acquiring fossil fuel resources for south-eastern European countries. Besides, it proposes individuating further options for the European energy gas supply, in order to avoid gas-rich states hegemony and developing a self-sufficiency gas market. The last phase is focused on the Italian situation, in which it will be tried to research potential energy capabilities for the nation, according to economic and political issues related to the international relations arena.