Understanding the EU-Russia Energy Relations Conflictual Issues of the ED and the ECT

Energy, being a very important aspect of international relations and a crucial element for the enhancement of national security, has both economic and geopolitical signifi-cance for consumer, producer and transit countries. In the course of last years the European Union (EU) ? Russia energy relations, and in particular the conflictual as-pects of the Energy Dialogue (ED) and the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) have been paid much attention. The aim of this essay is to find out the reasons for conflict emergence which can contribute to the deeper understanding of EU-Russia energy relations. In order to conduct the research I examine and discuss the legal framework of the EU-Russia energy relations including the conflictual issues. Then I analyze these issues with the help of Sergei Prozorov's innovative theory of understanding conflict emergence which approaches conflict between the parties from an impartial standpoint. With the help of the interpretative model I came to the conclusion that the reason for conflict emergence is the clash of the deployed logics behind the opted for foreign policies of the EU and Russia which is conditioned by the asymmetrical inte-gration and the difficulty of the respective parties to recognize each others interests as legitimate. The asymmetrical interdependence is found to be the factor that intensifies the conflictual issues