Over the last two decades multiple factors and actors shaped European renewable energy policy. In the early 1990s it has been promoted by the European Commission and European Parliament as the answer to the threat of global warming and a solution to the problem of increasing energy dependency of the European Union. Soon after, the development of renewable energies was perceived as a factor, which could have a beneficial impact on the European economy in the process called as eco-modernization. At the same time the number of actors participating in shaping European renewable energy policy increased significantly. Apart from the EU supranational institutions, over the last decade some member states became staunch supporters of a more active European policy in the area of sustainable development. In addition to that, associations and representatives of the new renewable energy industry became very vigorous in trying to influence the policy-making process at the European level. When analyzing the development of the European renewable energy policy two questions come up: Why are some actors more successful in forcing their interests at the European level then others and what repercussions does it have on the future of the European renewable energy policy? In my presentation I will argue, that in many cases the renewable energy policy has been used by different actors to achieve their own institutional goals. Successes of the European renewable energy policy, such as the adoption of the directive 2009/28/EC as part of the Energy and Climate Package, are possible if the - often different and sometimes even contradictory - interests of the actors participating in the decision-making process are pushing European renewable energy policy in the same direction.
