Volgens de eigendomsrechten theorie kunnen beperkingen op de contractuele vrijheid op eigendom (bijv. via wet- en regelgeving) maatschappelijk inefficiënt gedrag van bedrijven voorkomen, om daarmee beleidsdoelstellingen te ondersteunen zoals competitie en innovatie.
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Het derde onderzoek, Jong en Woerdman (2016), bekijkt of beleidsdoelstellingen op één lijn liggen met de uitvoering in Europese gas- en elektriciteitsmarkten. Voor de doelstellingen nemen we van Europese lidstaten de verschillende niveaus m.b.t. 1) de zekerheid van hun energievoorziening, 2) het concurrentievermogen en 3) de CO2- neutraliteit. Aangezien de uitvoering van Europese regelgeving op gas- en elektriciteitsmarkten veelal overgedragen is aan Europese Nationale Regulerende Instanties (NRI’s), analyseren we de wettelijke bevoegdheden van NRI’s. We leiden vervolgens scores af (a) in hoeverre deze energie doelstellingen gerealiseerd zijn en (b) wat de hoeveelheid en zwaarte is van de bevoegdheden van NRI’s omtrent deze doelstellingen.
Hoewel de noodzaak tot regulatoire interventie lager is bij hogere scores op de doelstellingen, vinden we dit niet terug in het merendeel van de gevallen. De regulatoire interventie is bijvoorbeeld hoger in het geval van de zekerheid van de energievoorziening en van de consumenten- bescherming. In plaats van steeds strengere regelgeving, is onze aanbeveling dat het ontwerp van deze regelgeving er meer voor dient te zorgen dat bedrijven, bij het behartigen van hun eigen belangen, tegelijk het (maatschappelijk) optimaal niveau van deze doelstellingen bereiken.
We kunnen geen duidelijke conclusies trekken voor de doelstellingen op het gebied van CO2-neutraliteit en energie efficiëntie. Een mogelijke verklaring is dat deze bevoegdheden bij andere beleids-specifieke NRI’s of ministeries liggen. Het zou de effectiviteit ten goede kunnen komen als de lidstaten uit de steekproef de regulatoire reikwijdte van hun NRI’s herzien. Dit kan bijvoorbeeld door toe te staan dat NRI’s gezamenlijk hun bevoegdheden gebruiken bij het ontvangen van informatie van de onder toezicht gestelden.
Ten slotte bevinden we dat NRI’s niet volledig de ‘optimale’ rangschikking van bevoegdheden hebben. In vergelijking met een theoretisch criterium zijn er relatief meer ‘harde’ dan ‘zachte’ bevoegdheden, hoewel laatstgenoemden goedkoper zijn om uit te voeren. Deze mogelijk verkeerde regulatoire combinaties kan men corrigeren door het gewicht van de bevoegdheden van NRI’s aan te passen.
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Acknowledgments
I still remember the day I got in the train for a three hours ride to Groningen. This was the first time for me I went to “the North”, in my thoughts one large no-man’s-land “above Amersfoort”, where the few people, who are able to live there, are stiff and never heard of carnival. It was a crazy rainy day and, to make it more challenging, I had a job interview for the Ph.D. position for which I applied.
Yet, the warmth and cheeriness from this job interview completely undid this blue and stressful mental state. This moment symbolized for me how “Groningen” would stand as an entity against the tons of focus and perseverance that is necessary when “doing a Ph.D.”. My supervisors, Oscar and Edwin, really were a team, each with complementary roles to keep me going. Oscar is no-nonsense and sharp, both in fun and business terms. Edwin is an excellent wordsmith, and goes to considerable lengths to get me involved with and connected to “the outside world”. I am very grateful for their endless patience, their multifaceted support, and their guidance into the academic world.
Fortunately, for me Groningen was really littered with cornerstones. Fitsum is one of the brightest and warmest persons I have ever known. During lunch or coffee breaks, we were able to find solutions to all world problems. Ela, always present at the notorious Ph.D. council drinks or other social events, precisely knows when and how to make fun of the things I am saying (and in case you did not know, I can be outspoken occasionally). Surya often shared us with his fascinating law and non-law perspectives, which resulted in some vortex which boggled our minds.
Many of the Groningen cornerstones could be found during lunchtime. On the way to abduct Teo for lunch, chances were high to be caught by the cheerfulness from the Graduate Office: Ela, Marjolijn, and Barbara. When standing (but also when not standing) in front of the Graduate Office door, Anneke could also take part in her warm determination to relieve me from all “purple crocodiles” the University brought forth. The lunch procession thereafter passed by Charis, Stefan, Zeeshan, Adam, Björn, and Enrique, where we were testing our powers of
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persuasion that both God and the universe required them to join. During lunch, it was always a joy with Teo to switch on the (rude) Dutch-mode, and to tell our foreign-born colleagues this rudeness helped them to integrate into Dutch society. At first, Yingying thought we were serious, but she is a quick learner and now can win this game hands down. After lunch it was time for coffee to immediately suppress the tiredness from digesting lunch, where we often encountered more fellow Ph.D. students. This daily lunch ceremony enabled me to get reborn, in order to continue battling away on Excel and STATA for the remainder of the working day.
After taking on Excel and STATA alone, I was joined by brother-in- arms from the European University Institute who were like-minded in cracking the EU ETS data vault: Jūratė Jaraitė-Kažukauskė, Andrius Kažukauskas, Aleksandar Zaklan, and Alexander Zeitlberger. I was happily surprised and grateful that Alexander was willing to join me in the endless search for a bunch of needles in the EU ETS haystack, even with other more pressing things on his mind. I am further indebted to the EUI in providing me with the opportunity to work together with Stefano Verde, Claudio Marcantonini, and Christoph Graf, and to get to know many others in the EU ETS domain.
Not only am I indebted to the Energy Delta Gas Research (EDGaR) consortium in its contribution to realize this Ph.D. research project, I have learned much from the interesting meetings and conferences with my EDGaR project partners from: DNV GL (Karen van Bloemendaal, Bert Kiewiet, Maurice Vos), ECN (Marit van Hout, Jeroen de Joode (currently: ACM), and Özge Özdemir), and TU Delft (Christopher Davis (currently: RuG), Gerard Dijkema (R.I.P.), Bas Gerben (currently: Widget Brain), Zofia Lukszo, and Ahmad Mir Mohammadi Kooshknow (currently: RuG)). Since I considered myself an expat in this country within my first months in Groningen, I wanted to explore the “real Groningen” and so I joined the soccer club “Groen Geel”. With the team, including the Thomas- duo, Jos, and Joseph, all ‘three halves’ of the match were a delight. We had no real “Grunnegers”; luckily I had the chance to encounter them as opponents in our soccer matches. It was the splendid “Groen Geel” team spirit and ambiance which made me got out of bed on time, for those early Sunday mornings when our matches started.
191 The Groningen time in its purest went by rapidly. I sent my Ph.D. manuscript the day before I started working at the Energy Directorate of the Authority for Consumers and Markets (‘ACM’). And so after a while I had to run two lives: one on the rewarding work at the ACM on electricity markets, and one on processing the Ph.D. reviews. I could not have finished these Ph.D. reviews without the many pats on my back from my warm ACM-colleagues: Hannah, Jacco, Johan, Jorieke, Lisanne, Max, Paul, Pauline, Robert, Roy (the list is longer, I had to stop at ten). I also could not have completed it without being able to kick some balls at my soccer team, SVC ‘08 (including the moment of glory at Lisse), and without the regular reminders that I must have “lived in a cave” during the pub quizzes with Lydwine, Hannah, Lena, Rieks and Ingrid.
I consider myself lucky that, during my adventure to and from Groningen, at many people’s places the coffee was still hot and the beer was still cold: my family (my mother; Lydwine; Willeke, Roelant and Paul; Ada, Oscar, Lauren and Louise; Klaas and Annelies; Thom and Annelies; Frans and Truus, Camiel and Kim), Serge, Stefan, Verbs 26 (David, Arjan, Fred, Evert-Jan, Benedikt), The BitterBall Boys (Jochem, Justin, Louis, Rob), the VITE-rans and Finals (Rob, Thomas, Shiao Li, Meike, Eline, Lotte, Ilse, Sanja, Koen), and the München Münsters (Bart, Eelco, Jasper, Krijn, Pim, Willem, Winand). You guys know how to get me out of my daily grind. Thanks for always being around, and for your sincere interest in what I am doing and what is up my mind.
Very special thanks go to Lydwine. It was painful to wave each other goodbye at the end of every weekend, in The Hague or Groningen. And when finally living together in The Hague, my evenings and weekends were often spent on the Ph.D. reviews. I am thankful she looked further than the horizon; we both knew the Ph.D. research was temporary, but not exactly “how temporary” it was going to be.
Finally, I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my parents. When I started this Ph.D. research, my father was already about a year in hospital after a heavy brain hemorrhage. From that incident until he passed away, he fought a battle he could not win, only to have more time with his wife and children. My mother, in return, almost set herself