The Cooperation Mechanism in the Renewable Energy Directive. A (sole) opportunity for Member States to open their national support schemes for cross-border cooperation

Abstract

One of the core objectives of the European Union is to establish an internal market. This goal also applies for the energy sector. Various legislative acts on the internal energy market were adopted by the European legislator in order to remove obstacles and overcome barriers created by the Member States. Nonetheless, the European single market remains fragmented, in particular, with regard to national support schemes on energy from renewable sources. The existence of twenty-eight different schemes, which are restricted to energy from renewable sources in the respective Member State, appears to be contrary to the European aim to establish a single market on energy.Member States adopted these schemes to foster energy from renewable sources and to attain their national overall targets prescribed by the Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC, which obliges Member States to reach a certain share of energy from renewable sources by 2020. The European legislation on renewables emphasises the sovereignty of Member States, thus solely foresees cooperation of Member States on a voluntary basis. The second Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC comprises three instruments (statistical transfer, joint projects and joint support schemes) of cooperation which were just employed occasionally by Member States. This approach will be continued by the third Renewable Energy Directive (EU) 2018/2001, which was adopted in December 2018. However, the Commission has made several efforts in order to integrate national support schemes in the internal energy market. These attempts did not prevail in the end, because they were opposed by other European legislative bodies. The main purpose of this thesis is to examine the development of energy from renewable sources as a political issue within the European Union and in particular the attempts to harmonise support schemes on energy from renewable sources. The current legal instruments of cooperation between Member States in the Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC and Directive 2018/2001 will be analysed and illustrated with eligible projects between Member States.