Expansion of The Qatar Gas Market, Savior of the European Energy Crisis

However, after the signing of the agreement, the European side had to face a threat from Qatar that they would withhold gas exports to the European continent. The choice was made as Belgian authorities were looking into claims of corruption at the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels. Several media outlets have reported that Qatar is complicit in the wrongdoing. Belgium therefore decided to restrict Qatar's interaction with the organization as a result. Qatar were irate as a result.

"Qatar has strong and long-standing relations with many countries in the EU, and we express our gratitude to those who have shown their commitment to these relations during the current wave of attacks on our country," the diplomat said.

            It is important to understand that the corruption scandal involving PE and Qatar began when the sole Yunani representative in the parley, Eva Kaili, was arrested. Since 9 December, he has been detained by Belgian police for participating in criminal organizations, money laundering, and corruption. According to a report by Euronews, Kaili engaged in illegal lobbying to destabilize Iran, which Belgian media misidentified as Qatar. It will serve as the official residence of FIFA World Cup 2022.

The legislator was reportedly 'caught red-handed', where there was evidence in the form of cash of 600,000 euros, 150,000 euros and several hundred thousand euros in a suitcase in a hotel room. This situation led to the revocation of his parliamentary immunity (CNBC, 2022).

            Given this threat, Europe should maintain good relations with Qatar if the country wants to survive under the energy crisis which also affects the economic crisis.

In this context, the conversation given by all the actors who have given their statements, is an example of a speech act in the Copenhagen School in international relations theory studies. The Copenhagen School originates from a research project on a critical review of the concept of security at the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute funded by the Fritz Thyssen Stiffung -Frits Thyssen Foundation- and involving security experts including Barry Buzan, Ole Waever, and Jaap de Wilde. The concept of securitization of the Copenhagen School offers a comprehensive understanding of security that combines military elements with other elements such as economic, social, political, environmental and so on. In this regard, securitization can be defined as a statement (speech act) made by certain securitizing actors (usually government officials) to convince the public that a referent object is facing a serious threat and must be handled with extraordinary actions. The statement continues to be made until it exceeds the threshold.

In the perspective of the Copenhagen school, the concept of security is a statement by an agent (security as a speech act) in which the decision to determine something as a security issue is determined by a statement (speech act) by someone who has broad influence or a public figure. Securitization is a step to make security issues in the public and private domains. The ability of securitizing actors to convince the public that an object is facing a threat that can be fatal if not handled immediately (Hadiwinata, 2017)

The statement (speech act) must be able to convince the public that the object of reference is facing a threat. In this case, the selection of appropriate political jargon and terminology by securitizers is very important. In addition, the completeness and accuracy of the data is an important element in the speech act context. This explains that although theoretically securitization is not the exclusive territory of government officials, many cases show that the success of securitization is in the hands of government officials because of the authority and availability of data in support of the speech acts made (Hadiwinata, 2017)