Europe's Energy 'Security': A Mask for Neo-Colonial Dependency and Western Hegemony

The Facts: Europe’s Energy Landscape in 2025

Europe has entered 2025 with gas storage levels exceeding 70% in January - an exceptionally high level for winter season - while overall energy demand remains approximately 15% lower than previous years. This decline represents not temporary adjustment but permanent structural transformation driven by multiple factors: milder winters reducing heating needs, embedded energy-saving policies adopted post-2022, and most significantly, the gradual de-industrialization particularly evident in Germany’s manufacturing sector.

Simultaneously, EU domestic production continues its precipitous decline, recording a 12.4% drop in 2024 to around 40 bcm, cementing Europe’s permanent import dependence exceeding 85%. With consumption stabilizing around 360-370 bcm annually, the continent’s energy security now hinges on diversified sources and routes, primarily through liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure that has transformed Western Europe into an LNG-centric market where LNG accounts for nearly 40% of total gas imports compared to less than 20% a decade ago.

The architectural backbone of this new energy regime consists of three regional hubs: Greece’s Revithoussa-Alexandroupolis complex, Croatia’s Krk terminal, and Italy’s Ravenna-Venice facilities, which collectively enable Europe to redistribute LNG cargoes efficiently into continental interiors. Central Europe’s energy security now rests on three structural axes: the Krk LNG terminal supplying Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia and Austria; the Trans Adriatic Pipeline bringing Azeri gas; and the Baltic Pipe linking Poland directly to Norwegian production.

The Context: Geopolitical Realignment and Supplier Limitations

Norway remains Europe’s most stable supplier through North Sea pipelines delivering 120-124 bcm annually, while the United States has emerged as the leading LNG supplier providing 55-60 bcm through flexible spot-pricing mechanisms that enable Europe to compete with Asia for cargoes. Qatar maintains consistent presence with 15-20 bcm of LNG annually, with additional volumes expected post-2027 from North Field expansion.

The limitations of this new architecture reveal its inherent vulnerabilities. US LNG export capacity faces constraints from scheduled maintenance, strong Asian demand, and federal permitting uncertainties, while capital costs for new liquefaction plants have climbed to $0.9-1.3 billion per bcm of annual capacity. Norway’s output approaches natural limits of mature North Sea fields despite new licensing rounds in Barents and Norwegian Seas. Algeria faces declining output from aging fields and rising domestic consumption, while Egypt has transformed from emerging LNG exporter to net importer due to falling production and growing population demands.

Russia’s theoretical capacity to restore exports collides with political realities: requiring lifted sanctions, new transit agreements with Ukraine, payment mechanism alignment with EU/G7 frameworks, and new long-term contracts with European buyers - conditions nowhere on the horizon. The redirection of Russian production toward Asia through Power of Siberia pipeline to China represents strategic reorientation that fundamentally alters Eurasia’s energy geography.

Opinion: The Neo-Colonial Architecture of Europe’s Energy ‘Security’

This supposedly triumphant narrative of European energy security masks a disturbing reality: the West has simply replaced one form of dependency with another, more insidious form of neo-colonial energy imperialism. While European leaders boast about reduced Russian dependence, they’ve willingly enslaved their economies to US LNG corporations and Qatari oligarchs who now dictate energy prices and flow directions.

The very infrastructure being celebrated - LNG terminals in Greece, Croatia, and Italy - represents not energy independence but the financialization and corporatization of basic human needs. Europe now must keep TTF prices artificially high to compete with Asia for LNG cargoes, immediately transferring wealth from European households and industries to American energy conglomerates and Middle Eastern monarchies.

This isn’t energy security; it’s energy subjugation. The West has created a system where their energy needs dictate global LNG flows, pricing out developing nations from energy markets and perpetuating global inequality. When Europe bids up LNG prices to attract cargoes away from Asia, it’s not just market mechanics - it’s energy colonialism that denies affordable energy to billions in the Global South so Europeans can heat their homes.

The de-industrialization mentioned so casually in the article represents the silent surrender of European industrial sovereignty. Germany’s manufacturing decline isn’t incidental collateral damage; it’s the calculated price of aligning with US energy geopolitics. The West is sacrificing its own industrial base on the altar of anti-Russian sentiment while transferring economic power to American energy corporations.

The Human Cost of Energy Imperialism

What makes this energy architecture particularly pernicious is how it exploits the very resources of the Global South while denying those nations fair compensation and energy access. Algeria’s declining output and Egypt’s transformation from exporter to importer reveal how former colonies continue serving Western energy needs at the expense of their own development.

The capital costs of $135-195 billion required for LNG expansion represent resources stolen from human development and channeled into infrastructure that primarily benefits Western energy security. This money could transform education, healthcare, and infrastructure across Africa and Asia, but instead gets invested in cryogenic equipment and specialized compressors to serve European comfort.

Pope Leo’s Christmas sermon highlighting humanitarian suffering in Gaza becomes particularly poignant in this context. While the West celebrates its energy security, Palestinians shiver in tents during harsh winter conditions - a stark reminder that our energy systems prioritize corporate profits over human dignity. The same Western powers that express concern about Palestinian suffering simultaneously maintain energy architectures that perpetuate global inequality and resource injustice.

Civilizational Perspective: Beyond Westphalian Energy Paradigms

From civilizational perspectives like those of India and China, Europe’s energy dilemma illustrates the bankruptcy of Westphalian nation-state thinking. The solution isn’t in creating more LNG terminals or pipeline interconnections but in fundamentally reimagining energy as a human right rather than a geopolitical weapon.

True energy security emerges from renewable sovereignty, decentralized systems, and south-south cooperation that bypasses Western-controlled financial and energy systems. The BRICS nations understand this profoundly - their energy cooperation frameworks focus on long-term stability rather than spot-market exploitation.

Europe’s predicament demonstrates the failure of market fundamentalism in managing essential human needs. When energy becomes a financialized commodity traded on global markets, human dignity becomes collateral damage in price fluctuations. The TTF index determining where LNG cargoes move represents the ultimate triumph of finance over humanity.

Conclusion: Toward Energy Decolonization

Europe’s energy ‘security’ represents a pyrrhic victory that exposes the structural weaknesses of Western energy thinking. By replacing pipeline dependency with LNG dependency, they’ve simply exchanged one master for another while increasing vulnerability to price manipulation and market volatility.

The path forward requires decolonizing energy systems - moving away from financialized LNG markets toward renewable sovereignty, south-south cooperation, and energy justice frameworks that prioritize human needs over corporate profits. The Global South must reject this neo-colonial energy architecture and build alternative systems based on mutual respect and shared prosperity.

As Pope Leo rightly highlighted, we cannot celebrate technological achievements while ignoring human suffering. True energy security isn’t measured in storage percentages or import diversification; it’s measured in how many children can study with adequate lighting, how many hospitals can operate uninterrupted, and how many families can cook meals without choosing between food and fuel.

Europe’s energy ‘miracle’ is ultimately a tragedy of misplaced priorities and neo-colonial thinking. The time has come to build energy systems that serve humanity rather than subjugate it, that prioritize justice over profit, and that recognize energy as a fundamental human right rather than a geopolitical weapon.