| The European Union's cooperation originated from the energy sectors (the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Atomic Energy Community). In the process of European integration, EU has always put the issue of energy in an important position. In the meantime, the endeavor to achieve common energy policy also plays an important role in promoting the integration. However, the EU energy policy is still a relatively weak and problematic field in the EU policies, in spite of the early beginning and high degree of attention. It has always failed to get free from the vicious circle: when the international energy situation goes well, the policy ceases moving on; when the situation deteriorates the reform and innovation restart to go on the road.This paper will analyze the EU's energy policy in the structure of the world energy political and the diplomatic systems, using the Layers of Analysis model to put the analysis of EU energy policy development at three levels, including the Member States level, the European Union level and the international society level. The paper is trying to examine the development and characteristics of the EU energy policy from the perspective of history and reality, to sum up the constraints of EU energy policy from the perspective of the Layers of Analysis and to provide some available policies from the perspective of the internal integration and the external policy.The constraints of EU energy policy are all kinds of beneficial, structural and unexpected resistance encountered at all levels during the process of effective energy policy implementation. The reason for expounding the constraints rests with the aim to find out the bottleneck restricting the development so as to work out the development direction. The reason for choosing the three-level lies in emphasizing the EU as the middle level, which is faced with the structural difficulties and whose will and means are playing a central role in the energy policy. Generally speaking, in the three levels of the EU's energy policy development, the constraints on the first level is prolonged and interest-related in nature, which calls for a gradual long-term incentive policies to ease and coordinate. while the third level constraints are sudden and structural, which calls for comprehensive and effective systems and mechanisms to deal with possible emerging issues and most of the time forward-looking thought in need. Therefore, as a middle-level subject ,the European Union need special vision and work, which not only downward, but also upward, not only internal but also external. It is the central one of the three levels, the one who needs to make a difference and can make a difference.China's current energy policy development has the same structural problem with EU, which should be prescribed through the Layers of Analysis in the industrial, national and international level. The national level is a level of analysis, and also a genuine linker and real actors with the other two. As the core level with their own responsibilities, China's central government should have both superb organizational abilities and the long-term political vision, in responding to the first level of prolonged and interest-related constraints and the third level of sudden and structural constraints. China is young and dynamic but also has scanty experience in the energy policy. For him, the way ahead is long and no ending, yet high and low he'll search with his will unbending. |
