Historical Institutionalism - An Analytical Framework for Studying the Evolution of the EU's Energy Policy

Energy policy did not enjoy as much attention in European studies as other European policy areas due to the lack of specific jurisdiction granted by the treaty. Although energy was the main focus of two of the initial treaties, as the European project evolved, states proved they were not keen on allowing EU institutions to get involved in areas of national interest and security and energy continued to be considered just from the point of view of trade and not as a policy area of its own. Along with the shift in the use of certain resources - oil and gas becoming primary resources, the Union’s institutional setup was not updated to deal with this change. Despite the importance of the field in an ever growing industrialized society, energy policy attracted little scholarly attention among those interested in EU studies since it was not one of the main areas of integration. Nevertheless, this seems to be changing and the need for having a framework of analysis emerges. In this sense, the present paper brings forward a historical institutionalist approach to study the evolution of the EU’s energy policy. Looking at the EU energy policy as a whole, defined by three aspects: competitiveness, security of supply and sustainability, this paper focuses on the evolution of the energy policy in the European Union as a fully flagged policy. It deploys a number of core concepts like unintended consequences, learning, path dependency and critical junctures while exploring the interaction between institutions and preferences. In order to illustrate assumptions, the paper will focus on the upheaval in the last decade of the EU’s energy policy, from the official recognition in the Lisbon Treaty to the communication on the Energy Union. The paper concludes with some observations on the potential and limitations of a historical institutionalist approach.