Actors and Lobbying in Hungarian and Polish Wind Energy Policy

The purpose of the study is to identify the main actors and motivations behind the changes in Hungarian wind energy regulations during the membership of Hungary in the European Union from 2005 to 2016. The influence of various interest groups in the area is largely unmapped due to the fact that wind energy was never a main priority of the nuclear energy and coal-dependent Hungarian energy politics. The importance of the area however was rapidly rising during the last two decades due to the post-communist economic transformation: the European regulations, the membership of the country in the European Union, shaping new energy policies with emphasis on renewable energies and seeing environmental energy investments as business opportunities with increasing reliance on state support. We can identify two cornerstones regarding the Hungarian wind energy policy. The first is setting the quotas in 2005 with guaranteed prices, regulating the market and restricting access to the wind energy sector for new actors. Secondly, in 2016 a new regulation in a form of a ministerial edict effectively halted new investments in the area due to restrictions regarding the capacity and location of new facilities. Our goal is to identify the role and the input of various interest groups in the decision-making process regarding the regulations including influential businessmen, environmental organizations. We are operationalizing interest group influence in the area with the help of process tracing. (a paper together with Geza Tokar)