The European Commission aims to tackle the climate crisis with the European Green Deal (EGD). To accomplish this task, the Commission requires expertise which interest groups are able to provide....Show moreThe European Commission aims to tackle the climate crisis with the European Green Deal (EGD). To accomplish this task, the Commission requires expertise which interest groups are able to provide. These groups which represent private and public interests provide information through lobbying and exert influence in the policy process. This paper provides insight into the private actors' lobbying strategies concerning the Green Deal. The theoretical frameworks that will be utilized to describe the lobby strategies are the access of interest groups in European policies through their expertise, the institutional framework of the EU and the policy issue characteristics. These frameworks are explained to provide a better understanding of the empirical findings. For the empirical research, qualitative content analysis will be applied to four energy private associations’ documents that are available in the public sphere. Finally, the findings will lead the study to argue that private associations are highly active in the policy process of the EGD and they apply informative lobbying to target the European Commission. Further research in the lobbying behaviour and influence of the energy sector in the implementation of the EGD is also suggested.Show less
The thesis researches the question of how people came to vote in favor of leaving the European Union during the 2016 referendum on the UK's EU membership. It critically assess one of the main...Show moreThe thesis researches the question of how people came to vote in favor of leaving the European Union during the 2016 referendum on the UK's EU membership. It critically assess one of the main explanations for public Euroscepticism: the identity approach. The authors argues that this approach is too static and doesn't fully explain the mechanisms and dynamics behind the Leave vote due to a over-reliance on qualitative methods and four theoretical misconceptions within the approach. Based upon a qualitative research strategy, and a case study involving Leave voters in England, the author argues that a wider theoretical framework, including the cultural schema of people, the public mood in the country and the opportunity for change theory, could help us to understand the mechanisms leading to the meanings and beliefs that underlie the 2016 Leave vote.Show less
