The Geopoliticization of EU Climate Policy: The European Green Deal's Evolution from a Cohesion to a Competitiveness Strategy
Author
Antunes de Oliveira Rica Goncalves, Altinino Tomas
Term
4. semester
Education
Publication year
2026
Submitted on
2026-05-29
Abstract
This thesis examines how a recent shift in the EU’s priorities toward geopolitics and competitiveness has turned the European Green Deal from a project aimed at regional cohesion into a strategy for geopolitical competitiveness. Using Historical Institutionalism, it argues that the shift occurred not through dramatic treaty changes, but through institutional conversion: existing rules and budgets were reinterpreted and reassigned new purposes while the formal treaty texts remained intact on paper. A qualitative content analysis of EU laws, strategic communications, and institutional reports traces this conversion across three areas: financial tools (the Recovery and Resilience Facility’s 'cash for reforms' model), the EU budget (greater centralization of the 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) into National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs)), and regulation (a more defensive use of the Single Market rulebook via the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) and the Revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED III)). The study finds that these changes have reshaped multi-level governance by flattening regional autonomy and strengthening the European Commission’s top-down steering over member states. It concludes that, in contemporary global politics, institutional resilience comes from the elasticity and interpretive flexibility of converted frameworks, enabling a historically decentralized actor to rapidly build a more insulated geopolitical and economic stance from within.
Specialet undersøger, hvordan et nyligt skifte i EU’s prioriteter mod geopolitiske hensyn og konkurrenceevne har omdannet European Green Deal fra et projekt for regional sammenhængskraft til en strategi for geopolitisk konkurrenceevne. Med udgangspunkt i historisk institutionalisme argumenterer det for, at skiftet ikke skete gennem dramatiske traktatændringer, men via institutionel konvertering: eksisterende regler og finansielle ordninger blev genfortolket og taget i brug til nye formål, mens de formelle traktatbestemmelser på papiret forblev uændrede. En kvalitativ indholdsanalyse af EU-lovgivning, strategiske meddelelser og institutionsrapporter følger denne konvertering på tre områder: finansielle instrumenter (Recovery and Resilience Facilitys 'cash for reforms'-model), budgettet (øget centralisering af den flerårige finansielle ramme 2028–2034 (MFF) gennem National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs)), og regulering (en mere defensiv anvendelse af regelsættet for det indre marked via Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) og det reviderede direktiv om vedvarende energi (RED III)). Resultaterne viser, at ændringerne har omformet den flerlagede styring ved at udflade den regionale autonomi og styrke Europa-Kommissionens topstyrede indflydelse over medlemsstaterne. Specialet konkluderer, at institutionel robusthed i nutidens globale politik udspringer af elastiske, fortolkningsåbne rammer, som gør det muligt for en historisk decentral aktør hurtigt at opbygge en mere isoleret geopolitisk og økonomisk position indefra.
[This abstract has been rewritten with the help of AI based on the project's original abstract]