This Workshop aims to evaluate implementation of the European Green Deal (EGD) and the achievement of climate neutrality while strengthening democratic resilience, in a world permeated by turbulence including climate crisis and geo-economic instability.
It has the following objectives: (i) to assess EU climate governance amid a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape marked by turbulence; (ii) to examine prospects for delivering on the EU’s climate commitments while strengthening democratic resilience, justice and public legitimacy; (iii) to foster dialogue across disciplines and methods for an interdisciplinary and integrated understanding of how the EU can accelerate decarbonisation and societal transformation in turbulent times.
The timeliness and importance of this Workshop for the discipline stem from the need to analyse the implementation of the EGD in a radically changed context. The European Commission launched the EGD in 2019 at a time of widespread public support evidenced by youth protests and success of green parties in European Parliament elections. However, since then the tide has shifted, due inter alia to ongoing turbulence including Russia’s war against Ukraine, cost-of-living and energy crises, democratic backsliding, and authoritarian populism (Ansell et al 2017; Dupont & Torney 2021; Gheuens 2025).
Geopolitical tensions have increased, including another US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and challenges to the EU’s global climate leadership role (Bremberg & Michalsky 2024: Earsom & Petri 2025: Parker & Karlsson 2017). The von der Leyen II Commission is prioritising competitiveness and simplification at the expense of the climate transition, and the European Parliament has become less climate ambitious after the 2024 elections. Research has yet to systematically examine the changing politics of the EGD and the extent to which they can result in its weakening, or even dismantling.
The EGD is also challenged by democratic backsliding (Buzogany, Park and Torney 2025; Bäckstrand 2025). Socio-political and technical challenges of climate change have prompted question regarding whether democracy is fit for purpose for the climate challenge. Against this backdrop, further research is needed to unpack which aspects of democratic governance require strengthening to reinforce democracy and achieve a transformative and just climate transition.
Ansell, C. K., Trondal, J. & Øgård, M., eds. (2017) Governance in Turbulent Times. Oxford, United Kingdom; New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Bäckstrand, K. (2025). “Democracy and the implementation of the European Green Deal: comparing Denmark and Sweden.” Journal of European Integration, 47(2), 277-297.
Bremberg, N., & Michalski, A. (2024). “The European Union Climate Diplomacy: Evolving Practices in a Changing Geopolitical Context.” The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, 19(3), 506-535.
Earsom, J., & Petri, F. (2025). “Winds of change? The impact of the European Green Deal on the practice of EU climate diplomacy.” Journal of European Integration, 1-20.
Buzogány, A., Parks, L., & Torney, D. (2025). "Democracy and the European Green Deal." Journal of European Integration 47, no. 2 : 135-154.
Dupont, C., & Torney, D. (2021). “European Union Climate Governance and the European Green Deal in Turbulent Times.” Politics and Governance 9(3): 312–15. doi:10.17645/pag.v9i3.4896.
Gheuens, J. (2025). “Context Matters: Variation in the Shortsightedness of European Climate Policy.” JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 63: 726–744. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13644.
Oberthür, S., Schewe, L., Otto, S., Rosamond, J., Gheuens, J., Moore, B., ... & Maarova, T. (2025). “Reinforcing EU Climate and Democratic Governance: Enhancing Public Participation and Deliberation.”
Parker, C. F., & Karlsson, C. (2017). “The European Union as a global climate leader: confronting aspiration with evidence.” International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 17(4), 445-461.
1: How will the EGD be reshaped by the shift in focus to competitiveness, as reflected in the EU’s Clean Industrial Deal?
2: To what extent will the Fit for 55 and updated 2040 framework deliver a just and legitimate climate transition?
3: How does geopolitical turbulence affects EU’s role as a global leader in multilateral climate diplomacy?
4: What democratic governance institutions can best enable and underpin implementation of the EGD?
5: How can implementation of the EGD be used to strengthen and reinvigorate democratic governance?
1: Conceptualisations of turbulence and democracy in the context of the EU’s climate and energy policy and legislation
2: The effects of crises and turbulence on the implementation of the EGD in member states
3: The emergence and resolution of political conflicts within and between EU institutions on climate action
4: How institutions of democratic governance at EU and member state level have evolved to respond to the climate crisis
5: The role and impact of democratic innovations in strengthening both climate action and democratic governance
6: How turbulence and crisis impact upon the perceived justice and legitimacy in the EU’s climate transition
7: The EU’s global leadership in climate diplomacy with increased geopolitical rivalry between China and US
