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THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
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will develop into a field in which the Commission
and the European Parliament will wrestle with
national governments over the impending loss
of responsibility for energy and climate issues.
In the context of the three dossiers, there will
not only be the question of how, but also in
which sequence the relevant decisions are
made. In particular, for the climate policy-relat-
ed aspects of the implementation package the
December 2015 climate summit in Paris will be
an important milestone. Depending on how
they assess the probability of success in Paris,
some Member State governments are likely to
push for a fast implementation of the decisions
of October 2014, while others will try to delay
them. The design of the review clause in the
conclusions, the unanimity requirement in cli-
mate policy, and the historical experiences with
the troubles around adjusting a EU climate tar-
gets leads one to assume that no actor will suc-
ceed in forcing a shift from the 40 percent tar-
get for the reduction of emissions 2030 in either
direction.
Conclusions
The discussion about the climate and energy
policy for 2030 has uncovered several key areas
of conflict. The way these conflicts are dealt
with will determine the future direction of the
EU’s energy and climate policy. Priority will be
given to the question of whether emission re-
ductions should continue to be the dominant
benchmark in the area of energy policy. The
much more fundamental question, which is cur-
rently simmering under the surface, is whether
Member States are going to be willing to sur-
render further parts of their sovereignty in the
area of energy policy to the EU. The envisaged
transformation process will have a considerable
effect on the energy supply structures in indi-
vidual Member States, but it has also illustrated
that this transformation process cannot be car-
ried out successfully as long as 27 different en-
ergy strategies are in place. If the poorly coordi-
nated energy policy approach pursued by
Member States continues, the transformation
costs will likely be significant due to the interde-
pendence of individual Member States’ energy
markets. However, a fully European integrated
approach –a necessity if the energy roadmap is
to be implemented successfully– violates Art.
194, Section 3, of the Treaty on the Functioning
of the European Union, which legally established
the Member States’ sovereignty on energy sup-
ply structures, and there is no evidence of
Member States being willing to give it up (cf.
Fischer/Geden, 2012). This is true irrespective of
individual Member States’ energy policy designs.