It should not come as a surprise that energy security has become one of the most central themes for the international community and organisations such as NATO, which was created primarily to deal with "hard security" challenges. Energy has always been a factor in international relations, sometimes even causing military conflicts. However, the importance of energy has never been as overwhelming as it is today, and it will undoubtedly increase in coming decades. We are already consuming twice as much energy resources than 30 years ago and this trend is projected to accelerate. In the mid-19^th century, an average human being consumed an amount of energy equivalent to 150 watts per hour (Wh). In the 21^st century, this figure has increased more than 13 fold to about 2,000 Wh. Our societies are more "addicted" than ever to energy and any major disruption of supply would cause much more damage to our economies and our way of life than it would have done in the not too distant past. Such a tremendous growth in energy consumption also results in a dependence on foreign energy supplies, not to mention the increase in pressure on the environment.

The question of European energy security has brought attention to the strategic significance of Southeastern Europe as a transport hub of natural gas and  a key region for Eropean energy security. The questions how to secure natural gas quantities sufficient for increasing European needs and how to reduce energy dependancy on Russia led to pipeline projects aiming to provide the European market with non-Russiam natural gas.