This detailed handbook constitutes the first comprehensive presentation of EC Energy Law, under the ECSC, Euratom and EC Treaties, including the history and development of this important legal field and its economic and technical foundations. Based on the relevant Treaty provisions, Community legislation, Court decisions and other primary sources, the book gives a complete account of the legal principles and provisions governing coal, nuclear power, mineral oil, natural gas, electricity and renewable energies at the European level. A special section is devoted to horizontal issues, including the definition of energy objectives, energy consumption, energy taxation, energy research, energy and the environment, energy and transport, investment and procurement in the energy sector, energy statistics, external relations in the energy field as well as energy in the context of enlargement. In nearly 3 000 footnotes and numerous references to specialised literature the reader is directed to relevant sources and further reading on all specific issues relevant to the understanding of EC Energy Law since its first inception in the 1950s to the impending enlargement of the European Union in 2004.