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.