In this paper I discuss very recent developments in the post-2020 climate and
energy policy framework of the European Union as well as their implications
for the German energy transition process. In a first step, I analyze how the
need for the planned modifications of the European strategy is framed. I argue
that the European Commission obviously sparked off a new round in tackling a
longstanding governance dilemma between European market integration and
regulatory diversity among Member States regarding energy and environmental
issues. In a second step, I take a closer look at the implications of these
changes at the European level for the German energy transition pathway. I
argue that supranational pressure to adapt national energy policies to
internal market rules coincides with the dominant domestic framing of the need
for market integration of renewable energies. This interplay of problem
framings, on the one hand, and the discretionary power of the European
Commission to control competition rules, on the other, explains the very
recent instrumental shift in the German national support scheme for renewable
energies. Subsequently, I debate various governance options for dealing with
the implications of the proposed new European approach to energy and climate
policy, both against the backdrop of the particular German way of energy
transition as well as against the backdrop of general transition challenges