Leiden University Student Repository

Jong, Ariane de (2024)

Understanding the European Green Deal: a trademark of European supranationalism or a reaffirmation of the power of member states?

Master thesis | Public Administration (MSc)

The European Union (EU) has been in perpetual crisis for more than a decade. By the end of the previous decade, the EU recognized the need to strengthen its climate policy to address the climate crisis. At the end of 2019, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission (EC), declared the European Green Deal (EGD) as the new top priority. The EGD aims to achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, decouple economic growth from resource use, and ensure that no one and no place is left behind. This thesis explores how the grand EU integration theories, neofunctionalism and liberal intergovernmentalism, can be used to explain the content of the EGD by conducting a theory-testing qualitative analysis case study. Does the EGD reinforce the power of member states or is it a symbol of European supranationalism?

European Union, Integration Theory, Neofunctionalism, Liberal Intergovernmentalism, European Green Deal

Author

Jong, Ariane de

Faculty

Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs

Specialisation

International and European Governance

Supervisors

Bulfone, F.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en