Europeanization of the Energy Policy within the European Union's System of Governance

The aim of the chapter is to answer the question about the scope and consequences of the process of Europeanization of the EU energy policy. The phenomenon is caused not only by the pressure from Brussels, but, most of all, by challenges and threats from outside the European system. The point of reference adopted for this article is the European Union (EU) itself, seen both as a source and result of the Europeanization process. The chapter begins with an overview of the body of work on Europeanization and the impact of European integration on energy policies of EU Member States. It then proceeds to adapting theoretical assumptions established in the existing literature for the purpose of analysing the Europeanization of the EU energy policy. Based on the proposals from M. Smith and R. Ladrech, the author identifies changes that have occurred due to the process of Europeanization and illustrates them with examples. In addition, the main part of this paper presents various dimensions of the process that are relevant to the energy sector. Among other matters, it considers the issue of links between the energy policy and other policies subjected to Europeanization – primarily, the economic and environmental policies