The Europeanisation of Energy Policy – What Scenario for Effective Institutionalism?

Abstract

Summary The energy policy has been part of the path to the (post-Lisbon) European Union as we know it today since the very beginning of this project in form of the both European Coal and Steel Community or Euratom. However, in past years/decades the energy topic shifted from ‘low’ to ‘high’ politics1. Despite energy policy being a delicate issue that has been at the discretion of the Member States, the Lisbon Treaty established energy as the shared competence between the European Commission and the member states Since then, the Commission has been very active in driving the integration of the energy policies2, resulting in establishing the Energy Union and gradually coupling the energy with climate variable3, ultimately, creating a platform for occurring energy transition. Nevertheless, the EU is heavy energy-importer but the Member States are endow differently in terms of the structure of energy mix, imports/exports and energy security, which challenges the institutional framework and governance of the energy sector within the EU in the future. The ultimate question reflecting the institutionalism approach is, how the EU institutional structure respond to the Energy Union project and division of competences both in vertical and horizontal perspective, from the point of effective decision-making and implementation of energy policy.