The Social Dimension of EU Energy Law

This chapter aims to discuss the challenge of reconciling economic and social concerns in the EU energy law and how the continuing imbalances and injustices could be addressed in future energy policy and legislation in the realm of the EU ‘social market economy’. This chapter focuses on social and economic rights regulated within the sphere of EU energy law. It addresses the energy-specific provisions of the Treaties, secondary legislation, international agreements in the field of energy and relevant soft law instruments. It is structured as follows. Section 2 will examine the EU’s competences in the field of energy; section 3 will detail the way in which different socio-economic aspects of the energy sector are regulated in EU secondary legislation. Section 4 will provide a synopsis of relevant soft law instruments, laying down relevant policy frameworks for the functioning of European energy markets. Section 5 will conclude by discussing to what extent social and economic concerns are included in the field of EU energy law and how the EU pursues the objective of creating a ‘highly competitive social market economy’, while attempting to balance the competing aims of energy security, protection of the environment and respect for market economy principles.