How Green is the EU Green Deal?

How is the continent's heavily critiqued climate policy going? And what does this mean for law and environmental governance? To be discussed and explored at an upcoming Radboud conference.

The EU Green Deal, launched in 2019, aims to make the union climate neutral (‘net-zero’) by 2050, pushing for a circular economy, biodiversity, sustainable farming and development without increased resource usage. European commission president von der Leyen claimed that The Deal would be Europe’s “man on the moon moment”.

But the Deal has so-far made few content, and has been heavily critiqued and protested across the political spectrum, from environmental and farmers’ groups, scholars, EU-skeptics and parliamentarians alike. Aspects of The Deal have already begun to crumble under opposition, such as the withdrawal in February 2024 of the bill to reduce pesticide usage by half. So-called “greenlash” against The Deal is considered in-part responsible for the dramatic reduction in support of Green Parties in the 2024 European Parliament elections. Implementation of The Deal and EU policy making surrounding climate will no-doubt change with increased influence of the far-right. Whether the 2050 target can be achieved, and how just it will be hangs in limbo.

This coming June, the RCSC and Radboud Faculty of Law will co-sponsor a conference on the legal implications of Europe’s external relations in the context of the Green Deal, including issues of equity and justice, particularly in the EU’s relations with the Global South. The conference will feature a keynote talk from former RCSC director Heleen de Coninck.

Visit the conference website to learn more and submit an abstract.

Deadline: 28 February, 2025.