Analysis of the level of energy security in the three seas initiative countries

Ensuring energy security is one of the main objectives of the economic policy of the European Union (EU) and individual member states. This particularly concerns the new EU members, which, apart from Austria, form the Three Seas Initiative. One of the primary goals of this Initiative is to achieve energy independence while achieving climate neutrality. In order to diagnose the state of energy security of the Three-Seas Initiative countries and how it changed between 2009 and 2019, a study in this area was conducted using the Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) method. The research is based on 17 selected indicators that characterize energy security in energy, economic, environmental, and social dimensions. Indicators were selected based on the priorities of energy policy of the EU. The weights of the indicators were specified as average values with the following methods: CRITIC, entropy and standard deviation. Based on the values of the Grey Relational Grade (GRG) index in the GRA method and its standard deviation, the level of energy security in these countries was evaluated. In addition, for each country, basic descriptive statistics regarding the indicators in question and the coefficients of dynamics of change in the studied years were also delineated. The results unambiguously showed the current state of energy security in these countries and show its changes over the study period. Austria was found to rank highest in terms of energy security in the analyzed period, and Poland and Bulgaria were found to rank lowest. In addition to the discussion on the results and conclusions of the study, recommendations were formulated on how to ensure energy security in the countries of the Three Seas Initiative, which can also be applied to other EU countries.