Bertel/Eisenberger/Lurger: The Emergence of Energy Citizenship in the EU (EuCML 2023, 49)

In the paper, they argue that energy citizenship as a legal concept can be inferred from EU law. They state that – although not explicitly mentioned in EU primary law – EU law allows for the inference of energy citizenship. At the centre of a legal notion of energy citizenship stands the relationship of the individual and the collective (or individual interests versus
the interests of the society) in the energy transition.

The main questions asked and answered in the paper are:

1) Does the EU law system support a concept of an active individual with (enforceable) energy related rights, and possibly even duties? Is the energy transition a mere policy goal, with the EU and Member States governments responsible for its implementation without any citizen’s rights or duties?

2) What is the relationship of energy citizenship to other existing concepts of citizenship, in particular to nationality, political citizenship and EU citizenship? Is it accessible to non-EU-nationals and why (not)?

3) Why is the concept proposed here new or innovative?

4) Which consequences would follow from it?

The article is a result of the work of the authors in the H2020 project EC². This project has received funding from the European Union ́s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 101022565. The article draws on the ideas developed in the law part of Deliverable “D2.1 Interdisciplinary understanding of energy citizenship” (work package 2). The
deliverable connected to this article can be found on the project website www.ec2project.eu.