Negotiating Greenhouse Gas Emission Limits in the European Union

Abstract

The case study presented in this paper deals with multilateral negotiations in the highly institu-tionalised setting of the European Union. More specifically, the study focuses on the Council of Ministers as the most “intergovernmental” one of the EU institutions. In substantive terms, the focus is on climate policy, and in particular on the setting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission limits for individual EU member states, as agreed by the Council of Ministers in a so-called “burden-sharing” agreement. This agreement is arguably “the most successful EU climate policy achievement so far” (Wettestad 2000: 36), but it was achieved only after almost two years of negotiation and re-negotiation in the Council and its subordinate bodies. The paper traces these negotiating processes against the background of theoretical debates on "arguing and bargaining" in international negotiations.