Policy Fracturing: Explaining Discontinuity in EU Renewables Policy

This Paper investigates discontinuity in the EU policy framework for the promotion of renewable energy (RES). After the failure of non-binding policy objectives, the EU firmed up its regulatory framework for RES support in 2007-09 by establishing binding national targets for individual EU member states for 2020. Although this approach has succeeded in putting the EU on a path to achieving its target of a 20% share of RES in final energy consumption, the European Council agreed in October 2014 to abandon binding national targets in implementing an unambitious EU-wide target of expanding the RES share to 27% by 2030. To understand this policy change, we investigate the preferences of key actors (including the European Commission, EU member states, and various interest groups) and factors framing them (including various EU crises, technological advances and the feedback effects of the existing policy framework). We in particular argue that the policy weakening resulted from changes in the preferences of important actors between 2007 and 2014. These changes were driven by the deterioration of the framework conditions, but also significantly by a negative policy feedback: national policies introduced in the previous wave undermined support for the EU policies in which they were rooted.