Decarbonization in the V4 countries: renewables goals in draft National Climate and Energy Plans
Decarbonization in the V4 countries: renewables goals in draft National Climate and Energy Plans

Summary/Abstract: The European Commission requested all member states to prepare drafts of their National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) until the end of 2018. Rooted in the Governance of the Energy Union regulation the Plans are supposed to guide contributions of member states to EU’s climate and energy goals including the 2030 ones by proposing tailor-made national targets and roadmaps that take into consideration specificities of individual countries. As the 2030 goals are binding at the EU level, the national plans can be viewed as the Commission’s effort to make member states responsible for achieving common goals and preventing mutual blaming for not reaching these before the deadline. The present paper examines NECPs of the Visegrad Four countries, focusing on their national targets in the area of renewable sources of energy that are considered to be crucial – but at the same time also one of the most problematic – part of the decarbonization process. It argues that by using existing legal framework (Renewables Directive) as a benchmark when evaluating of the NECPs, the Commission pushed countries to increase their domestic targets for renewables for 2030. Ex ante nature of the evaluation also presents a novel approach of the Commission that in this way strengthened its position vis-à-vis member states as well as the supranational dimension of European integration in energy policy area.

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