European Commission Battery Policy-Making

Abstract

Grand societal challenges necessitate cross-sectoral and cross-border policy solutions, highlighting the imperative for coordination and participation of public administrative bodies across sectors and levels. Thus, this dissertation examines Commission policy-making as part of addressing these challenges. Given the Commission's unique authority and administrative capacity, studying its day-to-day functions provides insights into how the Commission is tackling such challenges. Specifically, this dissertation focuses on the Commission formulating its regulatory proposal on batteries, the initial product specific legislation proposed under the European Green Deal (EGD). The aim of the EGD is to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Three key aspects of the policy-making process are studied: internal coordination within the Commission, stakeholder involvement in the policy-making process, and the mobilisation of attention of an associated EU member, Norway, towards the regulatory proposal. By utilising institutional and organisational approaches, this dissertation argues that the Commission's formal structure and temporality shape its policy- and decision-making behaviour and subsequently the outcomes of the policy-making process. The findings contribute to organisational theory by illuminating how formal structure and temporality affects executive governance, the Commission consultation regime, and national mobilisation towards Commission policies. This dissertation comprises three articles. The first article examines internal Commission coordination, revealing that coordination and centralization co-existed alongside fragmentation and decentralisation. Therefore, even though the Commission has become more centralised in recent years, it still matters which Directorate-General(s) are involved in formulating policies. The second article explores the Commission administration's involvement of stakeholders when formulating the regulatory proposal, uncovering a two-stage consultation process. The first stage serves to legitimise the policy-making process, whereas the second stage functions as an instrumental part of the policy-making process. The third article investigates how the temporality and administrative capacity of Commission policy-making affect the Norwegian administration's mobilisation of attention towards the regulatory proposal. It finds that the rapid pace of Commission policy-making constrained the Norwegian administration's engagement with the Commission and limited cross-sector collaboration when preparing the national implementation. Moreover, the findings contribute to the literature on the internal coordination within the Commission, the Commission’s consultation regime and European governance of time. In summary, this dissertation illuminates how the Commission navigates complex policy challenges, offering in-depth insights into internal coordination, stakeholder involvement and the mobilisation of attention across administrative levels.