Abstract In recent years there has been a major, policy-driven increase in research on the food-energy-water- (FEW-) nexus. Although the concept has played a significant role in much of the political sustainability debate since its emergence in 2011, it is increasingly criticized for its conceptual character and lack of practicability. To address the question of the concept’s application in the political practice of the European Union, an analysis of currently existing EU policies has been conducted with specific focus on implemented nexus thinking. To limit the scope of the study, policy documents were chosen from the major political frameworks within the directly nexus-relevant policy sectors agricultural, energy and water policy, most notably – but not exclusively – the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the EU Energy Strategy, and the Water Framework Directive (WFD), as well as documents which address the integration among those. The study included a total of 50 policy documents. An inductive research approach was chosen to derive a FEW nexus specific coding system for the computer-assisted, semi-quantitative and qualitative analysis of the documents. The results reflect the fact that, in the past, policy design has mostly been framed within sectoral mandates, e.g., for water, agriculture or energy. Cross-sectoral effects especially among all three nexus resources have only recently been accounted for and predominantly exist in the form of non-formalized statements of intent. The establishment of cross-sectoral thinking is most advanced between the sectors of agricultural and water policy, mainly driven by their respective and historically grown roles within the nexus system.

中文翻译：

---

当前欧盟政策中的 Nexus 思维——粮食、能源和水资源之间的相互依存关系

摘要 近年来，对食物-能量-水-（FEW-）关系的研究出现了重大的、政策驱动的增长。尽管自 2011 年出现以来，该概念在许多政治可持续性辩论中发挥了重要作用，但它因其概念特征和缺乏实用性而受到越来越多的批评。为了解决这一概念在欧盟政治实践中的应用问题，对现行欧盟政策进行了分析，特别关注已实施的联系思维。为了限制研究范围，政策文件选自与农业、能源和水政策直接相关的政策部门内的主要政治框架，最显着的是——但不仅限于——共同农业政策 (CAP)、欧盟能源政策战略，和水框架指令 (WFD)，以及解决这些指令之间整合的文件。该研究共包括 50 份政策文件。选择了一种归纳研究方法来推导出 FEW 关联特定编码系统，用于对文件进行计算机辅助、半定量和定性分析。结果反映了这样一个事实，即过去的政策设计大多是在部门职责范围内制定的，例如水、农业或能源。跨部门影响，尤其是所有三个联系资源之间的跨部门影响直到最近才被考虑在内，并且主要以非正式意图声明的形式存在。跨部门思维的建立在农业和水政策部门之间最为先进，