Energy Discourses in Europe - Legitimation of EU Energy Efficiency Policy

The production and use of energy is an important factor in European politics and science. However, we know little about the discussions that influence how scarce financial resources of governments and organizations are directed to different projects and action related to energy strategy of EU. Therefore, this paper studies the discourses that underlie the ‘energy talk’ of EU decision makers. This is important because discourses are resources that are employed to legitimate governmental and organizational aims and decision, such as new energy saving projects and policies. This paper is based on discourse theory that acknowledges that discourses change understanding of social situations, which also makes discursive activity a form of political activity (Hardy & Phillips 1999). However, there are multiple and contradictory meanings and realities existing in an organization, or in any discursive space (Hardy 2001) and discursive actors are commonly embedded in multiple discourses (Hardy & Phillips 2004). The study will be based on interviews with EU Members of the Parliament. The results are likely to reveal local and EU-level discourses that influence establishing of new energy policies and projects on EU-level and this way affect organizations and business in Europe.