Navigating the Complexities of Multi-level Governance in Europe’s Energy Landscape

Multi-Level Governance (MLG) refers to systems of governance where there is a dispersion of authority upwards, downwards and sideways between levels of government – local, regional, national and supra-national – as well as across spheres and sectors, including states, markets and civil society. It is a relatively recent concept, having first entered the lexicon of political science in the early nineties, largely as a result of European integration when authority was shifting, not only from central states up to Europe, but also down to subnational authorities.

Within the European Union nearly 100,000 local and regional authorities currently have significant powers in key sectors such as education, the environment, economic development, town and country planning, transport, public services and social policies. These local and regional authorities implement nearly 70% of EU legislation. The range and diversity of actors requires a greater degree of co-ordination. However, beyond a broad consensus that effective governance increasingly requires continuous negotiation across multiple levels and sectors, there is little convergence on best practice models of how to design and effectively operate MLG systems for different contexts and policy issues.

The South East Energy Agency is involved, on a daily basis, in dealing with EU, National, Regional and Local authorities across many sectors including energy infrastructure, resource efficiency, and the environment. We can only deliver services and activities effectively if we recognise and involve those authorities in a structured and collaborative way.

A good example of this is our involvement in REGIO1st. This is an EU LIFE project, in which the MLG process is a crucial part of the delivery of the project. Based on COOPENERGY: Multi-Level Governance in Sustainable Energy Planning, which was a previous EU funded project in which FEDARENE was involved, the three stages of MLG include 1) Initiating the collaborative process, which identifies the regional authority’s needs, key stakeholders, their level of participation and develops a common vision and objectives, 2) Developing the MLG model, to define the coordination and governance processes, develop the engagement strategy, define responsibilities and decision-making process and the evaluation process, and 3) Implementing the MLG model.

But what should this MLG model look like? The European Commission is ideally placed to develop, adopt and recommend such a model which would be appropriate for the energy planning sector, as the OECD has done with its Multi-level Governance and Public Finance model.

This editorial is extracted from our publication ‘Sustainable Regions in Action‘. Discover more here!