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THE EUROPEAN ENERGY UNION: SPURNING INTEGRATION OR BUSINESS AS USUAL?
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energy system cannot take place without the
support of the European citizens.
Conclusion
With the introduction of the Clean Energy
Package the European Commission has com-
pleted its policy suggestions for the creation of
the European Energy Union. Originally envi-
sioned as a radical step for increased integration
in times of wavering support for the European
project, it has unfortunately fallen far short of
its promise. The Commission’s proposals follow
a business as usual approach. In part this is due
to the essentially weak position of the
Commission in energy policy vis-à-vis the mem-
ber states. Whilst it can set climate goals, the
Commission cannot directly influence the ener-
gy mix of the member states and must resort to
influencing energy policy via competition policy
within its remit to deepen the common market.
In part the disappointing proposals suffer from
an inherent lack of vision and acknowledge-
ment that the energy game has sufficiently
changed since the role out of renewables. The
singular perspective on energy markets and
more so on electricity is technically understand-
able, but important CO
2
emitting sectors are
omitted from the strategy. As a result, valuable
time to decarbonise the economy and develop
perspectives for CO
2
-intensive regions is being
lost. The overbearing technical dimension of the
proposals hinders an effective political and soci-
etal debate and fails to reconnect to people’s
livelihoods. Europe can do better.