The recent upheaval in North Africa, which resulted in the toppling of two heads of state in Tunisia and Egypt and in the ongoing civil war in Libya, has raised great issues regarding the security of the whole of the Mediterranean region and exposed quite a few sensitive points of the European Union, the most important ones being illegal immigration and energy security.
As far as the latter is concerned, the European Union's energy-security status is predominantly related with the developments in three geographical regions—Russia, the Middle East and North Africa, from where it imports the bulk of its hydrocarbon needs. Therefore the Arab Spring is of outmost importance for Europe and will determine several critical developments as far as energy security in the European Union is concerned....