Designing integrative governance arrangements for policy performance in the Energy Union: evidence from seven member states

ABSTRACT

With the adoption of the Energy Union Governance Regulation Framework, the European Commission called for better-integrated approaches to govern energy transition and climate policies across member states (MSs). Whether these aspirations for strengthened policy integration resulted into better-integrated domestic policies remains to be established. This article addresses two intertwined questions: first, whether and to what extent the MSs adopted better-integrated energy and climate policy, through adequate governance arrangements in their national energy and climate plans (NECPs). Second, whether a sound policy governance integration approach is related with better domestic energy and climate policy performances. We address these questions by applying the policy integration framework, comprising four integration dimensions: policy frame, subsystem involvement, policy goals, and policy instruments. To assess policy integration, we conduct a comparative qualitative content analysis of the NECPs of seven MSs (Italy, Finland, France, Romania, Hungary, Portugal, and Germany). We find that significant differences exist between the NECPs under scrutiny and that higher degrees of integration are related with higher degrees of energy and climate policy performance. Contrariwise, lower degrees of integration are related with lower degrees of energy and climate policy performance. We conclude with some advice for policymakers and reflect on implications for follow-up research.

KEYWORDS:

• Energy union
• policy integration
• climate and energy performance
• comparative analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The EU GRF has been adopted in 2018, when UK was still a member state of the EU. The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020. EU member states thus decreased from 28 to 27.

2 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32018R1999&from=EN, accessed March 2022.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Giulia Bazzan

Giulia Bazzan is a scholar of Public Policy who specializes in policy process theories and comparative methods. Her theoretical research interests include policy design and policy capacity theories, policy integration, policy effectiveness and governance, and institutional theories. Her empirical research interests include food and agricultural policies, food safety regulation, environmental governance, sustainable governance, urban food policy, and energy and climate policies. Her methodological expertise is in qualitative methods, particularly Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and process tracing. Giulia is postdoctoral researcher at Copenhagen University, and she is an active member of the COMPASSS network (www.compasss.org) and of the standing group on Food Policy and Governance of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR). She is also a founding member of Methods Excellence Network (www.methodsnet.org).

Maria Stella Righettini

Maria Stella Righettini is an associate professor of Political Science at the University of Padova. Her theoretical research interests include regulatory governance, democratic governance, institutional analysis, institutional entrepreneurship, public policy implementation, and coherence. Her empirical research interests include food policy, urban food security governance, internet security policy, multilevel energy policy, and energy democracy. Her methodological expertise is in comparative analysis and qualitative/quantitative content analysis. She is a member of the IPPA college and the ECPR standing groups of Regulatory governance and the European Union.