Re-Thinking Cohesion and Effectiveness: The EU's Role in Climate Change Negotiations

Abstract

The shared assumption according to which the EU and its member states would be more effective if they were to speak with one voice on the international stage has led scholars to investigate the unidirectional link between cohesiveness and effectiveness. By adopting a new institutionalist perspective, this paper argues that a (reverse) causal link exists between those variables. It develops a new theory according to which the member states are unitary actors willing to maximize their interests, notably by delegating coordination and negotiation powers to (an) EU agent(s) in multilateral negotiations. In case of a negotiating failure, they may engage in a five-stage corrective process that ultimately leads to an increase or a decrease in the EU’s cohesiveness in further negotiation rounds. Theory-testing process tracing is applied to a single case study on climate change negotiations between the COP15 in 2009 and the COP21 in 2015.

Keywords: European Union, Principal-agent, Effectiveness, Cohesiveness, Climate change