A unified European Union on the global environmental stage? Statistical analysis of the European Parliament's consent to multilateral environmental agreements
Details
- Supervisors
- Faculty
- Degree label
- Abstract
- This thesis examines the voting behaviour of MEPs in the consent procedures for the ratification of five MEAs: the Nagoya Protocol, CITES, the Paris Agreement, the Minamata Convention and the BBNJ Agreement. Building on the literature on EU environmental governance, democratic participation and parliamentary voting, it analyses four independent variables - gender, age, Member State and political group - to identify the individual and political drivers of MEP consent. The study finds that political group membership is the primary and most consistent predictor of voting behaviour, while Member State exerts a secondary but significant influence. Gender and age show limited and inconsistent explanatory power. These findings suggest that the Parliament's broad and consistent support for MEA ratification reflects a structured and largely predictable political alignment rather than a genuinely deliberative democratic process. While consent adds democratic legitimacy to EU treaty ratification, its high approval rates and limited contestation raise questions about its role as a formal institutional procedure rather than a substantive political act.