EU climate policy coordination meets national fragmentation: The case of Norway

Problems such as climate change, impacting multiple sectors of society, necessitate joint cross-sectoral problem solving. The ‘sectorial principle’ in public administration may impede cross-sectoral solutions. This principle means that the management of any issue is linked to a ministry and its subordinated agencies and should be dealt with by that ministry. While the sectorial principle contributes to clear division of responsibilities, it makes it difficult to manage cross-sectoral challenges because no one takes responsibility for the whole. The sectorial principle has been increasingly challenged by the EU/EGD through policy packages, principles of ‘mainstreaming’ and ‘do no harm’ and a life cycle approach to emissions. By using Norway as a case, the paper asks to what extent and how the EU has affected cross sectoral coordination and how we can explain changes departing from three ‘models’ of EU-national climate policy integration: EU adaptation pressure, institutional resilience, and domestic politics. The paper contributes to the environmental policy integration and EU implementation literatures and has relevance for other EU countries relying on the sectorial principle. It uses a qualitative case study approach based on a combination of interviews, official documents and secondary literature.