This is a peer-reviewed paper.
Authors:
Giulia Pizzini, IEECP, Italy
Marine Perrio, IEECP, France
Thibaut Maraquin, Energy Cities, France
Jérémy Clero, IEECP, Belgium
Abstract
The EU climate law and the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action Regulation (1999/2018) operationalises for the first time in European legislation the concept of Multilevel Governance. The notion made its debut in scientific literature in the 90s as a useful concept to understand some of the decision-making dynamics within the European Union. In one of its White Papers in 2009, the Committee of the Regions first used the concept to describe coordinated action between different governance levels and other stakeholders. However, it is only in 2018, with Article 11 of the Governance Regulation, that the European Commission required for the first time Member States to implement that concept into national policy making.
Yet, succeeding in setting up and implementing such process requires a complete change of mindset for most European Member States, more used to top-down approaches and to integrating stakeholders’ feedback via one off consultations, carried out when an advanced draft of the measure or policy at stake is ready for adoption. As outlined in the recent State of the Energy Union report, issued in October 2023, the European Commission is not yet satisfied with how Member States are embedding the concept of Multilevel Governance. Member States in particular are evidently struggling to transition from consultations to a more comprehensive, inclusive and permanent exchange with relevant stakeholders, including sub-national authorities.
This paper describes the work done in six Member States in the framework of the NECPlatform project, which aims at supporting them in setting up Climate and Energy Dialogues to comply with Article 11 of the Governance Regulation. The abstract will describe the results of the research work done to assess the enabling and blocking factors for setting up such dialogues, outline the work done so far and the progress still necessary to achieve such results.
Publication available below, courtesy of eceee.
