Influence through arguments? : a study of the Commission s influence on the climate change negotiations

Abstract

Sammendrag: Abstract

This thesis is a study of how it is possible for the European Commission to have influence on multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). The study focuses on the European Commission s influence on the climate change negotiations.

In the climate change negotiations the Commission represents the European Community at the same time as the Member States have retained the full right to represent themselves. Traditionally international relations have been understood as the relations between sovereign states in an anarchic system. The deciding factor in negotiations is expected to be the actors relative bargaining power, which depends on the actor s material resources.

The Commission does not represent a state and it does not possess material resources. It is therefore not expected to be an influential actor in international relations unless it acts on behalf of the EU Member States. How the Commission might have influence in policy fields of shared competence with the Member States is not immediately evident.

In this thesis I have used a communicative action approach to supplement the more traditional rational action approach. A rational action approach assumes that the Commission must have some sort of power tools to have influence. The assumption of the communicative action approach on the other hand, is that the negotiations process can be a deliberative process and not just a bargaining process. In a deliberative process it is not required for an actor to have power tools to have influence. Actors must simply be able to formulate arguments and forward them to other actors in the negotiations to be potentially influential.

I find that the climate change negotiations take place at two very different levels. At the European level the process seems to be mainly a deliberative process. The actors listen to each other's arguments and abstain from using power tools in the negotiations, though power tools are available. At the global level the negotiations seem to be a bargaining process, where the actors use of threats and promises lead to an agreement.

This study confirms that the Commission has influence on the climate change negotiations. The Commission's influence at the European level seems to be significant and I find several explanations for that. The Commission does have power tools available to it in the form of its monopoly to forward proposals for Community legislation. But since the process at the European level is mainly a deliberative process the main explanation for the Commission's influence is the fact that the Commission is represented by competent and experienced experts and Commissioners.

The main explanation for the Commission's influence at the global level is found in its significant influence and role at the European level. The Commission is the only permanent member of the Troika supporting the Presidency when negotiating on behalf of all of the EU at the global level.

This thesis supports the argument that there seems to be a need to supplement traditional understanding of international relations with alternative theoretical approaches to be able to understand densely institutionalised international relations as the relations involving the EU.