eská debata o vněj í dimenzi energetické bezpe nosti a národní zájem

The Czech debate on the external dimension of energy security and national interest. Energy security is one of the most topical and important issues, both at the EU and member states level. This is a fact, not only in the context of climate change policy and common energy market design, but also in the light of the dynamics of EU external energy relations, with the latter recently gaining in importance. The Czech discourse on energy security is no exception and mirrors the development in the EU-wide debate. This claim is based not only on the analysis of events and the subsequent debate on energy security in the Czech Republic regarding the period from 2006 to 2010 (e.g. the natural gas crisis, Presidency of the Council of the EU, the question of energy import dependence), i.e. the period between the last two parliamentary elections with minor overlaps, but also on the three applied criteria of national interest – relevance, consensus, and external acceptability. The discourse on external energy relations of the Czech Republic is relevant, shows signs of consensus, and, from an EU perspective, could be considered as acceptable. Therefore, the external energy relations meet the criteria of the Czech national interest.