On a move towards harmonization. Historical-institutional perspectives on the evolution of renewable energy policy in the EU.

Abstract: The promotion of renewable energy sources (RES) has become a key measure within the EU to improve energy security and to mitigate climate change while offering opportunities for industrial development, job creation and regional cohesion. Over time this has put pressure for EU-level coordination and harmonization of national RES policy measures in order to improve effectiveness and market efficiency. This study advances a historical-institutional framework to explain how such forces have been conducive for the emergence and further evolution of RES policy as a new policy domain at the EU level. The main theoretical finding relates to the framework on path dependency, which emphasize how mechanisms of reproduction conducive of institutional stability simultaneously can be conducive for institutional evolution and change, and be applied to explain ?path creation? as well. This underpins the main argument of this study, that EU RES policy, in spite of various impediments, is a result of ?functional spillover? from the Single Market project conducive of further integration and, eventually, harmonisation.