ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how the Single European Act bestowed the European Union (EU) with the capacity to integrate policies more swiftly and effectively. After the critical juncture, the institution facilitated an environment conducive to creating positive feedback processes and incremental change. By comparing the policy outcomes across the First, Second, and Third Energy packages, this chapter demonstrates how an incremental yet significant shift towards deeper integration occurred. It shows that the rationale for creating the internal energy market (IEM) was based on rational calculations. Nevertheless, despite the initial primacy of actors in terms of the range of possible policy choices, specific decisions slowly entrenched the different actors in the institution due to the institutional design. In contrast to the internal market dimension, this chapter illustrates that legal provisions addressing the external dimension of energy policy suffered from shallow integration. Veto players’ powers overshadowed any consensus on external energy matters. Other than the areas of energy policy that fell within the remit of the internal market, decisions had to be made unanimously, and the Community did not have formal competence.
