Governance through real-time compliance: the supranationalisation of European external energy policy

ENMember States have retained core competences in external energy policy since the beginning of European integration. Even the new ‘energy chapter’ in the Lisbon Treaty safeguards national prerogatives. Contrasting this trend, we show that throughout the past decade this national stronghold has been eroding and replaced by supranational oversight. Reviewing energy-related negotiations of Poland and Lithuania with Russia and new regulation on intergovernmental agreements, we demonstrate how the Commission gained control over Member States’ external energy relations. We explain the expansion of supranational authority with spillover pressures equipping the Commission with new procedural prerogatives. Central to this development was the institutionalisation a novel supranational instrument we call ‘real-time compliance’. The term denotes the prompt application of soft and coercive means, ensuring compliance of energy agreements between the Member States and third countries with EU rules. This expansion of supranational powers through procedural competences has implications for debates on European energy policy and European integration.