Performing Normative EU Climate Diplomacy: An Analytical Framework

This chapter presents the analytical framework and the research hypotheses that guide the endeavour to comprehensively study the EU’s activity and action towards influencing the ICAO and the IMO in order to adopt rules that mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from aviation and shipping, respectively. It provides a holistic approach to the Union’s performance from the moment a particular European policy appears on the agenda to the moment this policy concludes its aims. The main focus is on the diplomatic efforts; in addition, -and in order to provide a clearer image- some aspects of their ramifications are discussed. The purpose of this approach is to allow the empirical study of EU’s climate diplomacy towards the aforementioned IOs. This holistic approach is separated into three distinct levels through which the theoretical assumptions that explain the structural function of the EU’s operation are established: the internal procedures that take place at the European level; the external processes that the EU as a whole performs through the NPE approach; and tools for evaluation of the composite outcome of the two previous stages.