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Building the EU’s Energy Policy Agenda: An Introduction

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Energy Policy Making in the EU

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Energy ((LNEN,volume 28))

Abstract

When are energy issues likely to be placed on the political agenda of the European Union? Which actors are influential in agenda shaping and what are their strategies? When does agenda shaping lead to legislative action? These are the research questions that guide the contributions to this edited volume. This introductory chapter gives an overview of the key concepts and research themes, and explains why the field of energy policy is useful for gaining an understanding of agenda shaping in the European Union. Furthermore, it outlines the structure of the book and summarises the contents of the individual chapters.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Binding rules in the EU are Regulations, Directives and Decisions, while Recommendations and Opinions represent non-binding instruments of European law (Tosun 2013, p. 30).

  2. 2.

    Until 2009, the European Council was an informal body. It was only formalised as an institution upon the entry of force of the Lisbon Treaty.

  3. 3.

    As Vanhoonacker and Pomorska (2013, p. 1320) outline, an important exception is foreign policy, where the High Representative can put forward proposals together with the member states (Article 30(1) TEU). In the other areas of EU external action, the High Representative can submit joint proposals together with the European Commission (Article 22(2) TEU).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University, Bergheimer Strasse 58, 69115, Heidelberg, Germany

    Jale Tosun

  2. Institute for Research Information and Quality Assurance, Schützenstraße 6a, 10117, Berlin, Germany

    Sophie Biesenbender

  3. Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Potsdam, August-Bebel-Str. 89, 14482, Potsdam, Germany

    Kai Schulze

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  1. Jale Tosun
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  3. Kai Schulze
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Correspondence to Sophie Biesenbender .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

    Jale Tosun

  2. Institute for Research Information and Quality Assurance (iFQ), Berlin, Germany

    Sophie Biesenbender

  3. Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Kai Schulze

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Tosun, J., Biesenbender, S., Schulze, K. (2015). Building the EU’s Energy Policy Agenda: An Introduction. In: Tosun, J., Biesenbender, S., Schulze, K. (eds) Energy Policy Making in the EU. Lecture Notes in Energy, vol 28. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6645-0_1

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