From coal to renewables: a history of EU energy law

Research Project

In the early 2020s, energy returned to European agendas with a vengeance. Its environmental impact, but also – after the Russian attack on Ukraine – security of supply and energy prices have become central issues of European politics. In the face of these developments, this project seeks to look back at the history of energy policy and law at the European (Union) level.

It seems puzzling that energy was so important to European integration from the very beginning – with energy being at the centre of the European Coal and Steel as well as the European Atomic Energy Communities – yet so slow to emerge as a field of European Community (EC) and EU action and law making. Many aspects of energy law making have remained national. Governments have vehemently defended their own competences. Hence European-level action primarily emerged in moments of crisis, such as after the 1973 and 1979 oil crises.

This study seeks to address this puzzle in a systematic manner through a historical enquiry into the emergence and development of EC/EU energy law. The project aims to look beyond a simple juxtaposition of contradictory national interests and instead proposes to examine the role of a multitude of actors in this field. The analysis will prominently include – at times transnationally organised – non-governmental or societal actors, including state-owned utilities and corporations that increasingly took an interest in energy issues, and their networks. The goal is to analyse and explain how and under what conditions the Europeanisation of energy law took place.