Thomas Sattich

Thomas Sattich joined the Institute for European Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels in April 2011. He graduated from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (political science, law, history) and has studied in France. Research in Poland (Instytut Spraw Publicznych Warsaw, German Historical Institute Warsaw) and Hungary (University of Szeged) roused his interest in the (not so) new EU member states, leading him to his Master thesis and to his PhD on the impact of EU’s 2004 and 2007 enlargement on European policy making. With two case studies and a triangulation of network-, cluster-, content analysis and process tracing Thomas identified several advocacy coalitions active during the policy making process leading to the renewables Directive (2009/28/EC) and the emissions trading directive (2009/29/EC), and their influenced on the policy output. Furthermore, Thomas assessed the positions the actors from the new EU member states took in this field of advocacy coalitions, and whether they were able to influence the two Directives by either forming their own group, or by joining an existing one.

As a Visiting Fellow at the Brussels office of Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) - German Institute for International and Security Affairs he started to work exclusively on energy- and industry related topics. Starting with various publications on European energy policy and Germany's energy transition (Energiewende), Thomas focused on the power sector, the integration of renewables and the adaptation of the European electricity transmission infrastructure. This branch of his research resulted in several contributions to different international conference (e.g. International Conference on the European Energy Market 9 and 10 in Florence, and Stockholm), publications (SWP, IES, and the Journal of Energy and Power Engineering), and a number of policy events in Brussels. Thomas' current focus lies on the effect of European energy policy on the distribution of power generation capacity in Europe and the future geography of Europe's power system. Aiming at the combination of policy analysis and quantitative impact assessment, quantitative methods such as network analysis and econometrics are integral element of Thomas' latest research.