Europeanization of Energy and Climate Policy

In the course of the post-2020 climate and energy policy framework debate, the European Commission opened a new round in tackling a longstanding governance dilemma between European market integration and member states’ discretion to develop policies according to domestically legitimized preferences. Motivated by ensuring welfare gains from an internal market, the attempts at the European Union level to strictly harmonize national support schemes for renewables ignore costs induced by the heterogeneity of preferences in member states. This article argues for a more flexible approach in coordinating respective energy policies: It might be reasonable to consider more strictly harmonized support schemes for large-scale projects of European relevance. However, there is still a need for less harmonized policies in order to give the necessary room for experimentation with innovations suited to the diverse member states’ preferences and societal risk perceptions.

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