This article aims at critically assessing the renewable
energy promotion policies pursued by the European Union (EU) within the context
of both its climate policy and Energy Union policy, with a view to identify
main strengths and weaknesses and the potential for improvement inherent to the
recent proposals for reform launched by the European Commission through the
‘Clean Energy for All’ package. It starts by giving an overview of the main
pillars of the Energy Union decarbonisation strategy, focusing on the renewable
energy promotion policies undertaken in the power sector. It goes on
identifying the main challenges that the development of renewable energy
electricity production has posed to both the EU internal market and other
decarbonisation policies. It then accordingly examines the main innovations
introduced and/or proposed to improve European renewable energy promotion
policies and, finally, concludes that they address the most pressing issues
experienced by the EU electricity system following rapid renewable energy
development in addition to creating an enabling environment for investment in
electricity transmission and distribution infrastructures, particularly
physical interconnections, which are essential to ensure successful renewable
integration.