Zeitdiskurse und Zeithorizonte in der EU-Klima- und Fischereipolitik
Final Report Abstract
The project aimed to explain the divergence in the EU’s environmental ambition in its climate and fisheries policy focusing on the role of discourses and institutional processes, in particular. In pursuit of its objectives, the project integrated constructivist and institutionalist perspectives, emphasizing the role of windows of opportunity created by shifts in the balance of interests and supported and used by Commissioners as policy entrepreneurs, in particular. The project employed discourse and contents analyses of policy documents and semi-structured interviews conducted with politicians, bureaucrats and stakeholders. As an overall aim, the project investigated policy change in the EU’s fisheries and climate policies. Specifically, it analyzed why EU decisions on the CFP and climate change objectives went in opposite directions from an environmental perspective, in the same period of time. For the CFP, the EU adopted its strongest pro-sustainability oriented policy, so far, agreeing on maximum sustainable yield targets, a discard ban and related measures. With respect to climate change, the EU adopted non-binding emission reduction targets, contrary to its tradition here. In the final stage, the project integrated a focus on business power in the Multiple Streams Approach (MSA) and showed that a change in the balance of interests in combination with Commissioners assuming the role of policy entrepreneurs provides an explanation for this divergence in EU environmental policy output. It also was able to document how changes in institutional procedures as well as business conflict did indeed create windows of opportunities. As a step towards this overall result, the project investigated power dynamics between and within the EU institutions in the development of the 2030 climate & energy framework of the European Union, again integrating a specific focus on power dynamics between the core EU institutions and non-state actors. Here, the project was able to show in a qualitative analysis that an absence of clear leadership from the European Council in the end furthered an extended influence of business actors via the strengthening of the Commission as well as particular DGs. The results pinpoint how a lack of guidance by the Council and divisions within the Commission allowed the informal passing of the scepter of EU climate policy to business, while formally the EU institutions remained responsible, thus not passing the buck in a corresponding manner. In a similar manner, the project inquired into the causes and context of policy reform in the CFP. Tracing the development of narratives in the EU’s fisheries governance, it was able to identify an initial narrative of efficiency and progress, which eventually integrated a rising sustainability narrative, but also a concurrent if not domineering narrative of self-governance, making the fisheries sector both the object and subject of regulation. A process analysis further was able delineate how changing institutional structures, non-state actor constellations, and discursive strategies providing a fertile ground for reforms. Strong motivation and strategic action characterized efforts of the relevant Commissioner, in particular, and together with the EP’s gaining of influence in the decision making process due to the application of the co-decision procedure, in accordance with the Lisbon treaty allowed well-organized coalition of environmental NGOs to benefit from vastly improved access to the EU’s decision making in this policy field. Inquiring into contexts and causes of change in the EU’s fisheries and climate policy, the project documented the usefulness of the MSA, and of a focus on power dynamics, narratives, and Commissioners as policy entrepreneurs. The project’s findings speak also to the (rather dark) future of the EU’s climate and fisheries policy.
Publications
- (2017) Windows of Opportunity for Whom? Commissioners, Access, and the Balance of Interest in European Environmental Governance. Social Sciences 6 (3) 73
Fuchs, Doris
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci6030073) - 2016. Performing ‚Green Europe‘? A Narrative Analysis of European Fisheries Policy. Münster: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität. Sustainable Governance Discussion Paper, (2016) 01. 21 S.
Engelkamp, Stephan, und Doris Fuchs
(See online at https://doi.org/10.17879/67149628545) - 2016. „Passing the Scepter, not the Buck. Long Arms in EU Climate Politics.” Journal of Sustainable Development 9(6): 58-74
Fuchs, Doris, und Berenike Feldhoff
(See online at https://dx.doi.org/10.5539/jsd.v9n6p58) - 2017. Political Contestation and the Reform of European Fisheries Policy“. Diskussionspapier des Zentrums für Interdisziplinäre Nachhaltigkeitsforschung (ZIN) der WWU 01/2017
Engelkamp, Stephan, und Doris Fuchs
