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Multilevel Coordination in EU Energy Policy: A New Type of “Harder” Soft Governance?

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Book cover Configurations, Dynamics and Mechanisms of Multilevel Governance

Part of the book series: Comparative Territorial Politics ((COMPTPOL))

Abstract

This chapter deals with a new trend in European governance which combines soft governance mechanisms with harder elements in order to enhance the EU’s capacity to steer in areas with limited European competences. It first develops theoretically a new type of governance, the ‘horizontal joint decision-making+’ in comparison with other types of multilevel governance. Energy policy was chosen as one of the areas where the new type of governance can be detected. The policy field is characterized by only limited competences at the EU level and no competences when it comes to decisions concerning the energy mix of the member states. Within the legislative package “Clean Energy for All Europeans” the EU designed an energy governance regulation which focuses on a better coordination of national energy policies. Despite the recourse to the soft method of open coordination, the regulation contains elements of a more binding and “harder” nature, potentially leading to the point of intervening in the national energy mix of Member States. This chapter analyses the steering potential of the EU Commission through “harder” soft governance in the multilevel system in an area of limited European competences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Political Science, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Michèle Knodt

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  1. Michèle Knodt
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Correspondence to Michèle Knodt .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Political Science, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Nathalie Behnke

  2. Department of Political Science, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Jörg Broschek

  3. Institute for Political Science, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Jared Sonnicksen

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Knodt, M. (2019). Multilevel Coordination in EU Energy Policy: A New Type of “Harder” Soft Governance?. In: Behnke, N., Broschek, J., Sonnicksen, J. (eds) Configurations, Dynamics and Mechanisms of Multilevel Governance. Comparative Territorial Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05511-0_10

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