European Union Normative Leadership: the European Green Deal

The research is devoted to the study of the normative leadership of the EU with the adoption of the European Green Deal. Within the framework of this work, the adoption of the European Green Deal will be analysed through the prism of discursive institutionalism outlined by V. Schmidt, who emphasizes how ideas and discourse affect institutional change and the stability of institutions. The goal of the study is to identify a mechanism for constructing ideas and discourses in the EU about the European Green Deal, thanks to which it was possible to achieve the adoption of the European Green Deal to provide normative leadership within the association and to translate the norms of the Green Deal outside its borders. The adoption of the European Green Deal was an opportunity for the EU to strengthen an identity based on adherence to norms by demonstrating its position on the correct transition to sustainable development. It was found that the European Green Deal discourse generally succeeded as the EU spoke directly to the EU population during the economic crisis and Covid-19 in cognitively and normatively compelling ways. Although the EU is only partly a normative leader on the climate agenda. It can be considered as a normative leader within the EU, but it has not obtained widespread support for its action to adopt green standards outside the EU.