Institutional Bricolage and Interest Groups Preferences: Evolving Regulation of Nascent EU Hydrogen Market

The hydrogen industry—promoted alternately as the “silver bullet” of European decarbonization and a “Trojan horse” for fossil-fuel incumbents—rose to the forefront of EU policy debates under the first Von Der Leyen Commission. This paper examines how the Commission’s attempt to assemble a regulatory framework for a nascent hydrogen market by coupling elements from multiple established sectors became a core source of political contestation among competing interest group coalitions.