The EU as catalytic state? Rethinking European climate and energy governance

Figures & data

Table 1. Forms of state and modes of economic governance and policy making.

	Positive State	Regulatory State	Catalytic State
Guiding principles (policy frames)	Defending/promoting the public interest	Promote efficient and competitive market/avoiding market failures	Supporting/facilitating market actors
Governmental agents’ role in fostering modernization projects	Providers of goods and services as well as direct funding (faire approach)	Rule-making, rule-monitoring and enforcing (faire-faire approach)	Catalyst and facilitator as well as provider of supplemental resources, expertise and incentives (faire-avec approach)
Governance structures	Line Ministries, executive agencies	Regulatory agencies	Ad-hoc organizational arrangements and hybrid alliances
Policy tools	Direct forms of intervention (e.g. planning and ownership)	Regulation and market-oriented policy instruments	Public-private partnerships; facilitation and informational tools; financial instruments aimed at leveraging private sector funding

Figure 1. Regulatory vs. Catalytic state: a different emphasis on EU policy instruments. Source: Prontera 2019.

Figure 2. From regulating European energy markets to catalysing climate and energy investment. Source: authors’ elaboration. Notes: (*) = as of December 2020 several proposals of the European Green Deal (e.g. ETS revision, EU Climate Law) are still under discussion; (**) = the InvestEU programme will be operative by 2021 (^) = the Green Deal Investment Plan will be supported by the InvestEU programme; (^^) = the 2020 Commission proposal for the revision of the 2013 TEN-E guidelines prioritizes electricity grids, offshore energy and hydrogen infrastructure (while natural gas infrastructure will no longer be eligible for EU support).

Figure 3. Mapping the EU catalytic state in the climate and energy sector. Source: authors’ elaboration.

Prontera, A, 2019. Beyond the EU Regulatory State: Energy Security and the Eurasian Gas MarketLondon: ECPR Press-Rowman and Littlefield.

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