Something for Everyone: Political Fragmentation and Policy Accommodation in the European Parliament

Abstract

The European Parliament (EP) and its component political groups will play a key role in the creation of the proposed Energy Union. Many of the initiatives put forward by the Commission in its Energy Union package are legislative in nature and will require parliamentary approval. The biggest challenge facing the EP may well be internal. Following the elections of May 2014, the assembly is more fragmented than ever. In June 2015, a draft resolution on the EU Energy Security Strategy was voted down by a coalition of moderately euroskeptic and strongly anti-EU forces; in December, the mainstream parties pushed through a resolution on Energy Union against the votes of parties on the left and right flank. As of the end of 2015, the EP’s position on Energy Union was that there must be something in it for all the mainstream factions—liberals, conservatives, socialists and greens. Consequently, the EP has eschewed the most mercantilist elements of the Energy Union, embraced its liberal elements (subject to social and environmental flanking policies), and endorses many of the proposals that fall in the grey zone between liberal and mercantilist measures.