In this interview excerpt, Álvaro de Vasconcelos, co-founder and Director of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IEEI) in Lisbon from 1981 to 2007 and Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) from 2007 to 2012, explains how Western European Union established a dialogue on security questions with the Mediterranean countries and regrets the fact that this forum has not been replaced by a similar instrument for dialogue within the European Union.

In this interview excerpt, Álvaro de Vasconcelos, co-founder and Director of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IEEI) in Lisbon from 1981 to 2007 and Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) from 2007 to 2012, shares his thoughts on a possible European energy policy, particularly referring to the debates on this subject within the Assembly of Western European Union when the first oil shock hit in 1971. He also emphasises the difficulties of developing a European energy policy given the differing approaches to energy supply in France and Germany.