Stakeholder consultations in the energy directorate : can they help integrate climate change?

Investigation of the conditions under which formal stakeholder consultations of the Directorate General Energy of the European Commission can help integrate climate change policy in energy policy in the European Union suggests that stakeholder consultations that aim at producing soft law and binding recommendations are rather insular, have low diversity of participants, and do not integrate climate change issues. Forums that aim at providing a discussion platform have higher diversity and integrate climate change issues to a certain extent. Stakeholder consultations can facilitate climate policy integration in European Union energy policy, as they take place early in the policy process. However, integration requires political commitment, and a concrete structure and format of the consultations that would facilitate integration.