CUSTOMISING EU ENERGY EFFICIENCY POLICY - The national strategy behind implementing Article 7 of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive 2012: a case study of Sweden
Abstract
This Master Thesis examines the topic of Member States (MS) implementation of EU policy,
with the two-folded aim of studying how and why MS customise EU policy in the manner that
is proceeded with. The strategy behind MS implementation of EU policy is hence at centre
stage and is analysed through the development of an innovative theoretical framework. The
theoretical development established in this thesis marries the descriptive concept of
customisation with the explanatory elements of Rational choice (RC)- and Sociological
institutionalism (SI). The thesis adopts a qualitative research design when examining the two folded aim applied to the single case of Sweden’s implementation strategy of Article 7 in the
2012 Energy Efficiency Directive (2012/27/EU). The material of the study is retrieved
through a mix-method approach of combining qualitative text analysis with conducting two
expert interviews. The findings of the study determine that Sweden customised its
implementation strategy both to a considerable extent and to a certain extent in making use of
the leeway under Article 7 (9). This notion is based on the ambiguousness of Article 7’s
Policy content which on the one hand requires MS to implement Energy Efficiency
Obligation Schemes (EEOS) under Article 7 (1), but on the other establishes the considerable
leeway under Article 7 (9) where the MS may choose alternative measures other than EEOS.
Based on the findings, it is also determined that the causes behind Sweden’s customised
implementation strategy correlate extensively with the independent variables put forward by
the RC approach. It was found that veto players, the formal institutional settings, and
administrative capacity had the greatest impact on the final formulation of the Swedish
strategy. The SI approach, on the contrary, is concluded to not have an extensive impact on
Sweden’s choice of implementation. The independent variables of SI in norm entrepreneurs,
informal institutions, and issue salience, had a considerable absence in the context due to the
domestic unawareness about what Article 7 entailed at the time of evaluation.
Degree
Master theses
Collections
Date
2022-06-22Author
Börjesson, Isabell
Keywords
EU, Policy implementation, Customisation, Rational choice institutionalism, Sociological institutionalism, Sweden, Energy Efficiency Directive, 2012/27/EU
Language
eng