Constraining Administrative Discretion to Facilitate Renewable Energy: Wind Farms as a Challenge for EU Law and the European Commission

摘要

Wind farm projects have generated conflicts between a range of different interests. In the European Union (EU), the Renewables Directive sets out rules that have implications for how these conflicts are to be handled in the Member States. As interpreted by the European Commission, these rules obstruct the possibility of handling these conflicts through negotiations, deliberations and the involvement of non-state actors. However, this interpretation lacks a clear legal basis, and may also generate more, not less, opposition against wind farm projects. Such opposition may delay and hamper the development of wind farm projects. This is counterproductive to the goals for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the use of renewable energy which the EU has set for the year 2020, and which the European Commission has recently proposed to set even higher for the year 2030.