Member States have retained core competences in external energy policy since the beginning of European integration. Even the new 'energy chapter' in the Lisbon Treaty safeguards national prerogatives. Contrasting this trend, we show that throughout the past decade this national stronghold has been eroding and replaced by supranational oversight. Reviewing energy-related negotiations of Poland and Lithuania with Russia and new regulation on intergovernmental agreements, we demonstrate how the Commission gained control over Member States' external energy relations. We explain the expansion of supranational authority with spillover pressures equipping the Commission with new procedural prerogatives. Central to this development was the institutionalisation a novel supranational instrument we call 'real-time compliance'. The term denotes the prompt application of soft and coercive means, ensuring compliance of energy agreements between Member States and third countries with EU rules.This expansion of supranational powers through procedural competences has implications for debates on European energy policy and European integration.

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This paper analyses the development of natural gas prices in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and assesses its drivers. Furthermore, the relation to recent changes in import contracts is discussed. The methodological approach consists of a panel analysis, in which wholesale gas prices in CEE countries are explained by a set of exogenous drivers, and a descriptive part on changes in contracts. The results provide evidence that a decreased share of oil-indexed long-term contracts has significantly reduced gas prices in Central Europe. Accordingly, the evaluation of contracting trends suggests that importing companies in CEE countries tend to replace expiring long-term gas import contracts with short-term agreements

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