Research Papers

While environmental politics has been an area traditionally characterised by direct action and activism on the part of NGOs, Brussels has been characterised as an ‘insider’s town’ where lobbying the institutions has usually taken precedence over campaigning in the strategies of Brussels-based environmental NGOs. However the context within which EU environmental governance in general and EU climate change policy in particular operates is changing and accordingly this paper investigates the extent to which environmental NGOs have adapted to such changes. The Aarhus Convention, the Commission’s Governance White Paper and more recently the European Citizen’s Initiative contribute to a broader ‘citizenisation’ of policy-making and create new incentives for NGOs to forge wider societal alliances in order to mobilise public opinion while attempting to influence the institutions. In ideational terms there is an increasing concern with the legitimacy of Environmental Governance, the emergence of participatory norms, and an institutionalised transparency agenda which militates against opaque inside lobbying practices. At the same time, certain EU climate change policy measures (such as emissions trading) are highly technical and thus often difficult to use for citizen mobilisation. Moreover, public opinion remains an unreliable ally in the EU since citizens are often ill-informed about the EU. Drawing, amongst others, on empirical findings from in-depth interviews conducted with senior environmental NGO representatives, this paper assesses both how these public policy actors try to use the EU’s changing opportunity structures to achieve their goals as well as the possible contribution which they make for the emergence of a nascent European society.