Shale gas in Europe: a case study on EU energy and environmental law

This chapter scrutinizes European Union (EU) legislation and its applicability to shale gas extraction. Shale gas extraction is a perfect case study on how EU law works when it comes to new energy developments and the dichotomy involved between the pre-existing legal framework and new rules that might have to be drawn up. This regulatory process involves three steps. First the EU requires primary law competence to regulate shale gas extraction in the first place rather than it be left to the Member States. After having established the competence to regulate, a second step, the so-called secondary EU law, needs to be assessed (Regulations, Directives, etc.) to see which components the existing legal framework of the EU has on shale gas extraction. The third step is then dedicated to the EU’s recent endeavours to develop shale gas specific regulation in order to close identified gaps in the existing framework, before coming to some conclusions.