From Stalemate to Decisive Action : Reframing the EU’s Energy Security in the European Commission's “REPowerEU” 2022 & 2025

Abstract This thesis examines how the European Commission’s framing of EU energy security is articulated in the 2022 and 2025 REPowerEU initiatives, and how differences between these framings may help explain changes in political legitimacy and political room for manoeuvre. The study thus employs a comparative design; while the 2022 initiative frames EU energy security primarily as under an imminent external threat linked to Russia’s weaponisation of energy, the 2025 proposal instead presents the issue as a matter of internal vulnerability, risk, and potential long-term harm resulting from the EU’s dependence on Russian energy. This shift coincides with the relocation of the issue from the domains of security and sanctions to trade, which broadened the EU’s institutional competence and enabled the proposal of a legally binding ban on Russian fossil fuels. From a security studies perspective, this development is analytically puzzling, as the initiative appears to have gained greater political traction as it moved away from the security domain. The study applies securitization and riskification theory to analyse how language constructs political legitimacy and shapes political room for manoeuvre. Methodologically, it employs a qualitative content analysis. The findings suggest that, in this case, risk-based framing enabled broader institutional legitimacy and greater political feasibility than security-based framing. The study contributes to research on securitization, riskification, REPowerEU, and EU energy policy by highlighting how differences in framing can reshape political authority and policy outcomes within the complex institutional context of the EU.