Pushing administrative EU integration: the path towards European network codes for electricity

Abstract

The expansion of the European Union's (EU's) administrative capacity could ultimately strengthen the influence of EU bodies at the expense of national governments. Recent scholarship has focused on the establishment of executive-administrative capacity beyond the European Commission, as in the form of EU agencies or networks. Previous research has identified interest constellations and existing transnational networks as important explanations, showing how the interests of national-and EU-level organizations have tended to group along a national-supranational axis. In 2009, the EU adopted a procedure for making binding EU legislation (network codes), delegating substantial tasks to a new EU energy agency (ACER), a new private European association (ENTSO-E) and to the Commission. Prior to the procedure's adoption, however, 'intra-sectoral' divisions overshadowed national-supranational divergence. Enquiring into the causes, this article finds that complementary use of perspectives can deepen our understanding of why and how the 'European administrative space' emerges.

Researching European Union Agencies: What Have We Learnt (and Where Do We Go from Here)?

“…Such enhanced capacity at the EU level probably musters more leverage behind a genuinely European perspective at various stages of the policy process. For example, whether to cope with, and how to cope with incompatibility and lack of interoperability among national transport and energy infrastructures, or how to solve the migration crisis, may be looked at quite differently depending on the territorial level of the decision-maker (see, for example, Jevnaker, 2015). Studies indicate that partly supra-nationalized agency networks also contribute to harmonizing guidelines and implementation practices across countries (Eberlein and Grande, 2005;Egeberg and Trondal, 2009;Groenleer et al, 2010;Gulbrandsen, 2011;Maggetti and Gilardi, 2011;Maggetti, 2013;Versluis and Tarr, 2013).…”

EU Agencies in Banking and Energy between Institutional and Policy Centralisation

“…This scenario could also be interpreted along the lines of a supranational image (Egeberg and Trondal, 2016: 3). In a context where competencies for most policy issues are held at EU level, we could assume that EU agencies are closely tied to the European Commission in particular and form part of the EU's integrated administration (Egeberg et al, 2015;Jevnaker, 2015).…”

“…The evolving structure of regulatory cooperation in the European electricity sector is well researched and has been widely discussed in the literature (Mathieu and Rangoni, 2019;Mathieu, 2020;Jevnaker, 2015;Rangoni and Zeitlin, 2020;Eberlein, 2008;. A first wave of academic interest was triggered by the creation of a so-called forum process in EBU 1999 (Vasconcelos, 2001;Héritier, 2003;Eberlein, 2005 Commission, 2007: 11-12, 25-27).…”

“…The energy package, composed of several regulatory measures accompanying the electricity directive (2009/72/EC), left member states with a choice as to different unbundling schemes so that infrastructure governance varies significantly across the EU (Eckert, 2019: 186-189;Meletiou et al, 2018). The third package created new policy competencies on network related cross-border issues and mandated a newly created European Network of Transmission System Operators in Electricity (ENTSO-E) with the task to draft network codes (Jevnaker, 2015;Eckert, 2019: chapter 6). The fourth energy package, better known as the "Clean Energy" package, was adopted in May 2019.…”

Grand visions and pragmatic integration: Exploring the evolution of Europe’s electricity regime

“…8 This period following the Second Package also saw the rise in prominence of a group who have since become increasingly influential in the integration process; energy regulators. The European Regulators Group for Electricity and Gas (ERGEG) was formed in 2003 (to be replaced by ACER in 2011) and its role was "to advise the Commission particularly in matters of implementation of energy market legislation, and to ease co-ordination among national energy regulators" (Jevnaker, 2015).…”