Ego versus Alter: Internal and External Perceptions of the EU's Role in Global Environmental Negotiations

Abstract

This paper compares how European and non‐European participants in international environmental negotiations perceive the EU's role in such negotiations. Three dimensions of the EU's role (environmental ambition, diplomatic activity and influence) are assessed in three UN‐wide environmental forums (the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions on chemicals, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the United Nations Environment Assembly). The paper presents original data collected through an online survey with 659 delegates who participated in the negotiations in the three forums in the period 2018–19. Comparing the ego perception of delegates from the EU with the alter view of delegates from non‐EU countries, the paper finds that the ego and alter perceptions of the EU's ambition, diplomatic activities and influence are largely similar. Both ego and alter see the EU as a highly ambitious, active and influential actor in global environmental negotiations.

Role Perceptions in Global Environmental Negotiations: From Reformist Leaders to Conservative Bystanders

“…We did not find significant differences based on the origin of survey participants. In contrast to Charles Parker and Christer Karlsson (2018), who found that countries and regional groups are more often recognised as leaders by negotiators from the country or regional group they belong to, we do not find this pattern in our data (Delreux and Ohler 2021). In other words, our data do not show a pattern in which countries or regional groups are assessed as more ambitious, active or influential by delegates from that region than by delegates from other regions of the world.…”