The European Commission's Commitment to Increasing the Social Legitimacy of the European Green Deal Strategy
The European Commission's Commitment to Increasing the Social Legitimacy of the European Green Deal Strategy

Summary/Abstract: The main goal of this paper is to explain the activities undertaken by the European Commission (EC), as a key political actor in the EU, to increase the social legitimacy of the European Green Deal (EGD) strategy among Europeans. The EGD, as a long-term strategy for the EU's development until 2050, constitutes an economic and environmental project with a clear political and identity dimension. The authors argue that its aim is to build a new vision of a united Europe based on the values of sustainable development and climate neutrality. The analysis is based on the concept of social legitimacy and the theory of actor-centred constructivism, with a particular emphasis on the role of the EC as an entity that creates norms, narratives, and policy instruments. This article identifies the main reasons for the low level of social legitimacy of the EGD, which include concerns about the costs of transformation, the uneven distribution of its socio-economic effects, a lack of trust in public institutions, and limited transparency in communication. The empirical section discusses the instruments used by the EC to strengthen the legitimacy of the EGD, particularly the redistributive and investment mechanisms such as the Just Transition Fund and the Social Climate Fund, as well as the withdrawal from the most controversial sectoral reforms. The conclusions indicate that this strategy is selective and may prove insufficient to gain lasting public support. The methodology and findings presented in the developed paper are based on the qualitative, interpretive, and critical analysis of the content of key EU legal acts, strategic and policy documents, statistical data, and scientific literature.

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