The European energy markets, in particular gas, showcase the tension between the expansion of the application of European Union (EU) law beyond its borders (or at least the effects thereof), and geopolitics, legislative and regulatory hurdles as well as opportunities for expansion. As the EU depends on the export of oil and gas from third countries, there seems to exist an intend to create a regulatory framework which would expand the application of EU law also to cover the import of energy towards the EU market, and contribute towards building an Energy Union. In this chapter, we discuss how legal instruments, as well as the investigative powers of the European Commission (the Commission), have been utilized by the EU to ensure the application of EU energy law in the gas sector to the infrastructure of and activities undertaken by companies from third countries both within and outside the Union. In this discussion, the cases initiated by and against Gazprom, the Russian gas company giant, and amendments to Gas Directive 2009/73, introduced by Gas Directive 2019/692, have a central role and form the focus of our analysis.The chapter is organized as follows. Section 2 deals with European dependence on imported gas from an energy security perspective, in particular gas imported from Russia. Section 3 discusses the extraterritoriality of the EU gas regime before the adoption of the Gas Directive 2009/73 and its amendment in 2019. The section shows how, until its modification, EU energy law did not apply to import pipelines. Arguably, because of this lack of extraterritorial effect and to prevent market power abuses, the European Commission resorted to the application of EU competition law against Gazprom as we discuss in Section 4 of this chapter. In Section 5, there is an in-depth analysis of the Commission’s efforts to extend the application of the EU gas regime to import pipelines and the process – as well as controversy – that ultimately led to the adoption of the Gas Directive 2019/692, which amended the Gas Directive 2009/73. Following its adoption and entry into force, Gazprom, through its affiliated entities, unsuccessfully challenged the Directive before the EU courts. Section 7 concludes the chapter by showing how, while EU law is not applied with extraterritorial effects, the EU clearly intends to create an ‘extraterritorial’ extension of EU law through the use of fine-tuned links that, as far as public international law is concerned, have the capacity to extend the effects of EU law beyond the territory of the Union
