Introduction

Europe has for decades struggled to guarantee security of energy supply and this struggle became apparent in the aftermath of the blockage of the Suez Canal in 1956. In the July of that year Gamel Abd al-Nasser of Egypt decided to nationalize the Canal and freeze the assets of international oil companies. This move alarmed France and the U.K. as they believed that such action would endanger the economy of Europe. They, therefore, took retaliatory measures, blocked all Egyptian accounts in their countries, and later declared their intention to seize the Canal. Eventually an ...