The EU Regulatory State, Commission Leadership and External Energy Governance

Abstract

The chapter discusses the EU as an actor in global energy, and shows that the EU – short of a strong set of policy tools – relies more than other players on exporting its own rules. It explores the areas in which the Commission is capable of exerting (regulatory) external power in the energy sector and assesses the Commission's actions with regards to the challenges facing the EU along the energy value chain: upstream, midstream and downstream. In conclusion, the chapter suggests that the Commission is emerging as an international actor that relies on the attractiveness of the EU’s domestic market in order to exert power beyond it.