GREEN POLICY, GREY REGULATION: ENERGY SOVEREIGNTY AS THE EUROPEAN UNION’S PRIMARY GOAL

Liber Martin; Mariana Rugoso

doi:10.14210/nej.v31n2.p126-148

Authors

Liber Martin National Scientific and Technical Research Council – CONICET - Argentina
Mariana Rugoso Universidad Nacional de Cuyo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14210/nej.v31n2.p126-148

Keywords:

Energy sovereignty, Climate Change, Energy Policy, European Union, Renewable Energy

Abstract

Contextualization: The article critically evaluates three recent regulations by the European Union (EU) on renewable, gas, nuclear energy and biodiversity, which undermine the continuity of EU environmental goals. The analysis of regulations focuses on: 1) Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1214 of 9 March 2022, which makes amendments to the green taxonomy including gas and nuclear, (2) Council Regulation (EU) 2022/2577 of 22 December 2022, which offers emergency authorizations for renewable energy sources, and 3) Regulation (EU) 2024/1991 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 June 2024, which seeks to protect and restore natural areas, supporting the European Green Deal and the 2030 Biodiversity Strategy.

Objectives: The objective is to critically assess whether three recent regulations preserve the coherence of European environmental commitments or reveal a shift in favor of energy sovereignty. The critique questions the supposed objectives and their alleged exceptional nature, pointing out legal inconsistencies in the mechanisms.

Method: The research adopts a qualitative, interdisciplinary, and legal-doctrinal approach, combined with policy analysis, through the examination of competences, strategic instruments, and normative acts of the European Union.

Results: The article concludes that these recent regulatory changes reveal a clear break from the EU’s longstanding discourse on environmental impact, as they privilege energy sovereignty over previously legislated environmental objectives.

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Author Biographies

Liber Martin, National Scientific and Technical Research Council – CONICET - Argentina

Doctorate in Law from the University of Zaragoza (2009) and serves as an independent researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET). He is also Professor of Administrative Law, Environmental Law, and Natural Resources Law at the National University of Cuyo and the University of Mendoza. Has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH) and has served as a Visiting Professor at several leading institutions, including Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne (Jan–Jul 2011; Feb 2023), the University of Colorado Boulder (2012), the University of California, Berkeley (2015), and El Colegio de México (2017). He also spent two years at the University of Zaragoza (Sept 2022–Aug 2024), holding a Maria Zambrano Chair under the Program for the Requalification of the Spanish University System (SUE)/European Union–Next Generation. He authored many books, journal articles and papers on comparative water law and policy, water rights, water public utilities, international water law, natural resources and environmental law. He has also collaborated with a number of international organizations, including the ECLAC, UNECE, UNESCO, FAO, IDB and various regional governments among others.

Mariana Rugoso, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo

Doctorate in Law from the University of Zaragoza (2023) and serves as Professor of Environmental Law and Natural Resources Law at the University of Mendoza and the National University of Cuyo. Visiting Professor at the Institut für Berg- und Energierecht at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany (Nov.-Dec. 2019).

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