"Greenlash" in the European Parliament - between politicisation and business lobbying

Abstract

The recent political backlash against policies of the European Green Deal is a new phenome-non. This is particularly noteworthy in the case of the European Parliament considering the institutions historical role as an environmental champion, now exhibiting opposition to key environmental policies. The thesis addresses this research puzzle through a comparison of three regulations proposed by the 2019 – 2024 von der Leyen Commission which varied in their degrees of success in the adoption by the European Parliament: the Nature Restoration Law, the Deforestation Regulation, and the Sustainable Use Regulation. Borrowing insights from literature on electoral politicisation and business lobbying, this thesis introduces a novel framework that examines the combined influence of these factors on policy outcomes in the European Parliament. The thesis contends that the convergence of increased public scrutiny and resistance from corporate actors leads to the rejection of a policy. Based on an analysis of EU institutional documents, speeches of the Members of the European Parliament, political group publications, and interest group reports, the thesis reveals that the policy outcomes of the European Parliament are increasingly shaped by the inability to find compromise which is a result of high levels of politicisation and business lobbying as illustrated in the case of the Sustainable Use Regulation.