Energies, Vol. 18, Pages 4310: Spatial Differentiation of EU Countries in Terms of Energy Security
Energies doi: 10.3390/en18164310
Authors:
Iwona Bąk
Katarzyna Wawrzyniak
Beata Szczecińska
Emilia Barej-Kaczmarek
Maciej Oesterreich
Global discussion on energy security remains deeply embedded in social, political, and economic discourse, especially in light of ongoing geopolitical instability and disruptions in supply chains. The aim of this study is to assess the degree of differentiation in the energy security of EU countries and to distinguish typological groups of the studied facilities based on the level of this phenomenon in 2023. This article uses a three-stage research procedure to assess the energy security of EU countries. In the first stage, statistical data were collected for 21 diagnostic features belonging to three groups: energy production and consumption, energy imports and exports, and economic and social factors. Next, using the TOPSIS method, three synthetic measures were constructed: separately for each group of features, taking into account features from the first and second groups, and taking into account features from all three groups. Based on these measures, typological groups of countries were identified using the three-median method. In the final stage, the impact of socio-economic characteristics on energy security was assessed. The results presented in this paper confirm the varied level of energy security in EU countries and indicate that it is linked not only to categories directly related to the energy economy but also to the level of socio-economic development of a given country. The top places in the ranking are occupied by countries such as Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and Austria, while the last places in the ranking include Malta, Greece, Cyprus and Ireland.