European green deal: "man on the moon moment" or just another strategy?

The subject of this thesis is the positioning of the newly adopted European Green Deal within a broader tradition of the European Union’s environmental and sustainable growth policy. Being named Europe’s ‘man on the moon moment’ the European Green Deal is expected to significantly change the European concept of development as well as its handling of environmental challenges. The aim of this study is, therefore, to assess if, and if so, to what extent the European Green Deal is an innovative strategy compared to other respective documents of the 21st century. The work, using a theoretical background combining J. G. March and J. P Olsen’s logic of appropriateness and M. A. Hajer’s framework for environmental discourse analysis, will examine the Green Deal’s discursive novelties and their significance. The central pillar of this work is a development of a concept of ecological modernisation and its manifestation in the documents being analysed. Ecological modernisation has trough decades established itself as the main school of thought and a major discourse within the EU. Its central assertion is the compatibility of economic growth and environmental politics and their mutual benefit for each other. Containing its signature storylines and narratives that replace complex discussions and potential alternatives, ecological modernization might have prevented any needed transformations. The analysis reveals that ecological modernisation continues to manifest in the European Green Deal as the document essentially employs the same principles of EU’s growth. The Green Deal does in fact introduce some aspects modifying and improving ecological modernisation’s agenda (introduction of a Just Transition Mechanism and re-evaluation of the EU ETS), however, these changes, though important, do not refute ecological modernisation. This study also evaluates the European Green Deal outside of the ecological modernisation setting. The analysis reveals 3 fields of discursive novelties introduced by the Green Deal: 1) a generally much more determined and stricter language is being used in the Green Deal, reflecting a bigger emphasis on rethinking past policies; 2) the Green Deal shows improvement within the social sector as it emphasizes inclusivity and broadens its concept; 3) the Green Deal introduces several completely new narratives, terms and concepts. The paper concludes that the European Green Deal does indeed contain some important discursive novelties, however, as it continues to follow ecological modernisation’s agenda for growth, the European Green Deal does not propose any fundamental transformations and does not, therefore, justify its praise