EU multilevel system 119

To ensure the implementation of EU energy policies, the EU institutions seek to work closely vertically, i.e. with the member states, whereby coordination takes place both bilaterally and multilaterally, involving different stakeholders and different degrees of complexity. Here, in the following, the focus will be on the European Council, the Council, the Commission, the External Action Service and the UfM, as well as on the Investment Bank and the European Financing Institutions (EFIs).

As presented in Part 3, vertical consistency/coordination is concerned with the consistency between different institutions across different entity or governance levels. Here, the European Council is equally one of the most important institutions when it comes to establishing external consistency (GEBHARD, 2017:109) and in charge of ‘ensuring consistency between member states’ and EU foreign policy goals’ (EUROPEAN COUNCIL 26/27 June 2014 Conclusions). Likewise, and as indicated before, the Commission is responsible for ensuring consistency of the

- 120 -

EU’s foreign policies (LEAL-ARCAS and WOUTERS, 2017:39). In this regard, it has an overall important coordinating function which also encompasses energy where it is for example responsible for monitoring the member states’ foreign energy activities and assessing their compliance with EU law.692 _{In this role, it promoted for example the establishment of the}

Strategic Group for International Energy Cooperation (SGIEC) in 2011. Composed of representatives of the member states (energy & foreign affairs ministries) and the relevant EU services (such as the Commission and the EEAS), this group aims at contributing to greater coordination through regular joint reviews of cooperation with third countries.693 _{Meetings take}

place twice per year694 _{and the southern Mediterranean as a whole is part of its agenda}

(SCHUBERT, POLLAK and REUTLER, 2016:217).695 _{In addition to this, the Commission, via DG}

ENER, regularly updates the member states on EU activities in the Council’s Working Party on Energy which in fact provides a platform that may also allow for the preparation of common positions (KNODT and PIEFER, 2015:60).696 _{And whilst DG ENER, which primarily operates on}

the EU level, has not been identified as the leading DG when it comes to energy dialogue between this dissertation’s respondents (Interview EC; EEAS, 2017), it does, however, play a major role in establishing vertical consistency since it acts as the interface between the EU and the EU member states (Interview EEAS, 2017). In this context, it has, as pointed out by Helwig, Ivan and Kostanyan (2013:47), ‘an informational advantage in relation to the EEAS on the member states preferences in energy issues.’ Overall and as regards Morocco, it plays a decisive role in the coordination of supranational and national energy policy interests, together with DG NEAR (Interview EC, 2017; EEAS, 2017).

Apart from DG-ENER, the HR or the EEAS also play a major role in vertical coordination, with the HR being actually in charge of coordination between the Commission and the Council, notably through his/her role as a chair of the Council’s FAC (Art. 9E Treaty of Lisbon).697 _{Furthermore, it}

liases with the foreign affairs ministries of the member states, with which it is supposed to closely cooperate (Art. 27 § 3 TEU; Interview EEAS, 2017).698 _{Here, efforts are largely facilitated}

by the service’s organisational structure, combining (apart from the Commission) forces from the Council (and comprising the submission of proposals and the chairmanship of Council working groups) and the member states (GATTI, 2016:305).699 _{In this context, the EEAS is}

supposed to cooperate with the General Secretariat of the Council (VAN VOOREN and WESSEL, 2014:23), whereby, as pointed out by Helwig, Ivan and Kostanyan (2013:46), the MaMa group serves as the ‘primary fora for the EEAS and member states’ interactions in the area of neighbourhood.’ According to the literature, relations are considered as ‘efficient’ (BLOCKMANS, KOSTANYAN, REMIZOV, SLAPAKOVA and VAN DER LOO, 2017:129), an opinion that this thesis’s empirical research confirms (see Figure 26). Here, the fact that the service is partly comprised of staff from the national diplomatic services of the member states – who in turn are responsible for streamlining eventual outcomes to the relevant national actors – certainly plays a role

692 _{Whilst in this context, it disposes of a tool to better coordinate the member states external energy policies towards third}

countries, the so-called information exchange mechanism, the latter is however of less relevance to this research, as it primarily covers the member states’ relations with supplier countries (focusing mainly on infrastructure projects) (COM/2011/0539; Decision No 994/2012/EU).

693 _{Eurlex (Accessed on 31 October 2019).}

694 _{Council (Accessed on 28 February 2019).}

695 _{Council (Accessed on 28 February 2019).}

696 _{In fact, the Directorate General Energy (DG ENER) works with the Working Party on Energy on a constant basis (HELWIG, IVAN}

and KOSTANYAN, 2013:47)

697 _{In this light, he/she is in first place accountable to the Commission and second to the Council.}

698 _{EEAS (Accessed on 31 October 2019).}

- 121 -

(Interview AA, 2017). Overall, coordination between the DGs and the member states as well as between the EEAS and the member states is either limited or extensive (and consistency thus either medium or high), with consensus and the establishment of common priorities being achieved at times (see Figure 26).

Apart from the DG ENER, DG NEAR and the EEAS, the EIB also closely coordinates with the member states and their respective financial institutions with whom it even establishes common priorities (see Figure 26). And as has been shown before, the EIB is, in line with Article 19 (§ 2) of its statute, obliged to request the opinion of the EU institutions on all financing operations outside the EU.700 _{This also applies to the member states which are to be consulted for}

evaluation of conformity of planned projects with EU legislation and policies. The reason for this is that it is a co-financing donor, i.e. it provides loans along with donors, contributing up to 50% of the total project cost. Its key cooperation partners701 _{are the German KfW and the French AFD,}

whereby this depends entirely on the region of investment. One important platform here is MORSEFF, the Morocco Sustainable Energy Financing Facility which, set up in 2015, is, as shown before, a financing facility with an investment volume of € 110 million aimed at supporting Morocco’s private sector via loans, investment subsidies702 _{or technical assistance.}703 _{As of end-}

2018, MORSEFF had funded 11 projects related to RES worth € 5,1 million. MORSEFF was developed by the EBRD, in cooperation with the EIB, the AFD and the KfW. Its local partners are the BMCE Bank and Banque Populaire.704

In general, it can be noted that the budget process plays an overall important role when it comes to vertical coordination and a lot of interaction takes place around the annual programming of the EU budget (Interview EEAS, 2017). In fact, as stated by Peters (2018:7-8), negotiations over the budget reveal or reflect state priorities ‘expressed in dollars and cents’. Other than that, vertical coordination primarily takes place via the DG NEAR’s NIF or NIP, as it is called since 2017 (all Interviews). Indeed, and as mentioned before, DG NEAR has been identified as a key actor when it comes to improving coordination between the EU institutions, the member states and Morocco, with all the interviewees showing overall great satisfaction with the work of the Directorate. The NIP is governed by a Board of Directors which is chaired by the Commission and consists of members of the EEAS, the EFIs and the member states.705 _{Board meetings take}

place on a regular basis, depending on the occasion. For example, when it comes to the strategic direction of the facility, the board meets once or twice a year to define common objectives, however, it comes together more often in order to approve operational programmes. In terms of application procedure and, as the potential beneficiary of the facility, Morocco must submit a request to the NIP Secretariat. Managed by (and located in) DG NEAR, the secretariat is de facto the single-entry point for requests, whilst a technical assessment group under the leadership of the Commission and with the participation of all the EFIs, examines the potential projects and decides whether to grant approval or not. Subsequently, and in cooperation with the partner

700 _{EIB (Accessed on 07 December 2017).}

701 _{other than the World Bank (WB), the African Development Bank (AFDB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and}

Development (EBRD).

702 _{These subsidies are finaned by funding from the Neighbourhood Investment Platform (NIP) and the Southern and Eastern}

Mediterranean (SEMED) fund.

703 _{As far as the European countries are concered, this fund is supported by Germany, France, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands and}

Sweden and the UK. MORSEFF (Accessed on 27 February 2019).

704 _{MORSEFF (Accessed on 27 February 2019).}

705 _{Thanks to its governance structure, the Neighbourhood Investment Platform (NIP) plays a major role in coordinating the different}

- 122 -

countries, in this case Morocco, the EFIs develop their individual grant requests for the project (to benefit from the NIP, projects must be developed by eligible EFIs, i.e. by EFIs that are entitled to submit applications)706 _{and present them to the Board.}707 _{Here it must be noted that all the}

European donors have the same underlying principles and criteria for granting loans (Interview AFD, 2016). Once presented to the board, two scenarios are possible: if the project is to be funded via the NIP Trust fund, the board’s approval is final. By contrast, if the project is to be funded from the EU budget, another additional approval from the Commission is necessary.708 _As

already stated, EFIs can decide to finance investments alone or in cooperation with other EFIs. Operations carried out by the AFD in Morocco are generally automatically financed in cooperation with the EIB or the KfW.709 _{Interestingly, the KfW and the AFD act as both}

partners710 _{and competitors here – as well as in Morocco in general – whereby the KfW has been}

clearly identified as an actor whose power has rapidly increased in recent years (Interview AFD, 2016). The reason for this is that it has a much more diverse product portfolio than its French counterpart. For example, it is not only present in the energy sector but also in a variety of other domains (Interview AFD, 2016). Finally, it has not yet reached the limit of its equity capital (Interview AFD, 2016) and receives substantial financial support from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) on whose behalf it acts (Interview AFD, 2016). To conclude this section, the NIP plays a key role in coordinating and streamlining the external financial energy activities of the different players involved in EU energy governance towards Morocco.711 _{In fact, it serves as the sole platforms for interregional exchange, and vertical}

coordination primarily takes place within the framework of this facility.

Other than the NIP which is a bilateral instrument, the UfM, which is supposed to act as a coordination and monitoring agent in the Mediterranean region, equally plays a coordinating role via its already mentioned energy platforms and, despite frequent criticism of its efficiency, has been recognised as a valuable platform for political exchange and dialogue by this dissertation’s interview partners (see Figure 26). Supported by a different set of regional institutions, the UfM platforms foresee an overall stronger role for the EU member states and the Mediterranean target countries, as well as for the energy industry actors. The idea behind this is to ‘emphasize the bottom-up character and mechanisms conducive to mutual exchange rather than conditionality and legal authority’ (HERRANZ-SURRALLES, 2018:133). The gas platform is jointly run by the UfM, the OME (which primarily provides technical assistance) and the MedReg, with their common objective being the improvement of gas security in Mediterranean,712 _{rather than}

regulatory integration (HERRANZ-SURRALLES, 2018:133). Indeed, as noted by Herranz- Surralles (2018:133), the stated aim of the platform was or is the creation of a ‘major gas marketplace’. The electricity platform is equally run by the UfM and MedReg, as well as by Med-

706 _{EC (Accessed on 28 November 2017).}

707 _{Eligible European Financing Institutions (EFIs) usually attend sessions of both the strategic and operational Board meetings.}

Bankwatch (Accessed on 10 December 2017).

708 _{EC (Accessed on 29 August 2019).}

709 _{Bankwatch (Accessed on 10 December 2017).}

710 _{Overall, cooperation between the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Reconstruction Loan Corporation (KfW) and the French}

Development Agency (AFD) (as well as other European Development Finance Institution (DFIs)) has taken place since 2003 with the signing of a framework agreement for financial cooperation and exchange of services. Furthermore, since 2009, the EU has been facilitating the combination of EU internal investments and loans related to development projects via a pooling mechanism. EC (Accessed on 30 July 2017); Secteur Privé et Developpement (Accessed on 01 August 2017).

711 _{EC (Accessed on 09 August 2017)}

- 123 -

TSO,713 _{whereas the RES and EE Platform (REEE) is run by MEDENER and supported by}

RES4MED.714 _{Other stakeholders involved are MedReg and Med-TSO (Interview UfM, 2017)}715

(see Figure 25). Finally, the OME also closely cooperates with the electricity and REEE platforms, to which it provides valuable input.716 _{The energy platforms are co-funded by the EU}717 _whilst

the annual plenary meetings take place in Barcelona (usually in combination with ministerial meetings),718 _{normal work meetings may also be organised in other cities (Interview Med-TSO,}

2018). Plenary meetings are usually attended by the UfM Secretariat, the EC and other stakeholders. Participants of the EU member states are either the ministries of energy or foreign affairs (Interview EEAS, 2017; Interview Med-TSO, 2018). Non-plenary meetings take place around three times per year (Interview MEDENER, 2017).

Figure 25: UfM energy platforms

Gas

•Progressive development of a Euro-Mediterranean gas market through the establishment of a regional structured dialogue

REM

•Progressive integration of Euro-Mediterranean energy systems and energy markets through the enhancement of electricity exchanges and interconnections

REEE

•Progressive deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency measures

OME MedReg MedReg Med-TSO MEDENER RCREEE

Source: Own elaboration based on UfM (Accessed on 07 September 2017).

Figure 26: Vertical coordination in the EU multilevel system

European Council-Member states

Unified strategy

Establishing common parameters/priorities

Search for consensus

Consultation Information-sharing No interaction Sometimes achieved Not achieved Achieved N o c o o rd . L im it ed co o rd . E xt en si ve c o o rd .

EC (DG ENER/DG NEAR)-Member states

Unified strategy

Establishing common parameters/priorities

Search for consensus

Consultation Information-sharing No interaction Sometimes achieved Not achieved Achieved N o c o o rd . L im it ed co o rd . E xt en si ve c o o rd .

713 _{MedReg (Accessed on 21 December 2017).}

714 _{MEDENER (Accessed on 26 February 2019).}

715 _{OME (Accessed on 19 December 2017); RES4MED (Accessed on 02 January 2017).}

716 _{OME (Accessed on 10 November 2018).}

717 _{UfM (Accessed on 28 February 2019).}

- 124 -

EEAS-Member states

Unified strategy

Establishing common parameters/priorities

Search for consensus

Consultation Information-sharing No interaction Sometimes achieved Not achieved Achieved N o c o o rd . L im it ed co o rd . E xt en si ve c o o rd . EIB-Member states Unified strategy Establishing common parameters/priorities

Search for consensus

Consultation Information-sharing No interaction Sometimes achieved Not achieved Achieved N o c o o rd . L im it ed co o rd . E xt en si ve c o o rd . UfM-Member states Unified strategy Establishing common parameters/priorities

Search for consensus

Consultation Information-sharing No interaction Sometimes achieved Not achieved Achieved N o c o o rd . L im it ed co o rd . E xt en si ve c o o rd .

Source: Own elaboration based on empirical research.