Green Energy Policies in South East Europe – The Impact of Prospective EU Membership

This paper examines the reasons for the adoption of “green” policies in the field of energy and climate change in four South East European (SEE) countries – Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). It evaluates the extent to which these policies are influenced by the European Union (EU) as opposed to other factors, such as international obligations, domestic pressures (from NGOs, the private sector, political parties), perceived business opportunities, or concern for the environment. Theoretically, the paper primarily relies on the rationalist institutionalism approach, which focuses on the use of conditionality in the EU accession process. The empirical part of the paper is based upon 30 semi-structured questionnaire responses from and interviews with government officials, NGO representatives, and experts from international organizations actively involved in the field. Overall the underlying incentive of EU membership was evaluated as the most powerful generator of green energy policies in SEE. While other factors seem to act in synergy with the EU’s demands, responses suggest that it is unlikely these factors would have led to the adoption of the green policies/programs outside of the EU context. However, differences among the countries examined do exist. They can be attributed to a certain extent to the countries’ differences in their progress on the path to the EU, although some level of variation, due to a number of political, economic, and social circumstances, is to be expected.

The purpose of this paper is to find out the principal reasons for the adoption of “green” policies in the field of energy and climate change in four South East European (SEE) countries – Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The paper examines the extent to which their respective green energy and climate change policies are influenced by the European Union (EU) as opposed to other factors, such as international obligations (e.g. the Kyoto Protocol), domestic pressures (from non-governmental organizations, the private sector, political parties), perceived business opportunities, or concern for the environment. To assess the EU’s impact (or Europeanization), it primarily relies on the rationalist institutionalism approach, which focuses on the use of conditionality in the EU accession process.

Among the SEE countries examined in this paper, only Croatia has a target date for EU accession. Montenegro has been a candidate country since December 2010 and has not begun accession talks yet, whereas Serbia’s progress will depend on normalizing its relations with Kosovo. The farthest away from membership is BiH, whose only contractual relationship with the EU is the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), signed in July 2008. All of the countries have adopted or are in the process of developing green legislation in the area of energy and climate change policy. The level of advancement in the adoption of progressive rules generally (although not entirely) corresponds with the progress of individual countries on their EU accession paths.

The paper begins with a discussion on the EU’s influence on policy in aspirant and candidate countries, and more specifically on its impact on energy policy in SEE through the creation of the Energy Community. It then proceeds to discuss four concrete policies/programs in the area of sustainable energy and climate change in Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and BiH: feed-in tariffs; energy efficiency standards in buildings; energy efficiency action plans; and flexible mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Finally, it presents the results of empirical research on energy and climate change policies in the region, based upon 30 semistructured questionnaire responses from and interviews with government officials, NGO representatives and experts from international organizations actively involved in the field.

Copyright:	© Lexxion Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
Quelle:	Issue 04 / 2011 (Dezember 2011)
Seiten:	12
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Autor:	Nina Soljan Seth Landau

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