The eco-social aspects of the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork

Abstract

With the publication of the European Green Deal (EGD) in December 2019, the European Union (EU) has recognised a link between environmental and social challenges and the need to tackle them together. A body of literature publishing under the umbrella concept of sustainable welfare and the term eco-social policies has acknowledged the environmental and social nexus and has been characterised by six prominent eco-social aspects namely, the integration between environmental and social policy goals, their link with economic growth, just transition, redistribution and compensation, citizens’ participation, and the state’s role. However, an in-depth analysis of the eco-social aspects contained in recent European policy documents that can be traced back to the eco-social literature is missing. To address this gap, this article focuses on two policy documents considered at the heart of the European ambition of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, namely the EGD Communication and the Farm to Fork (F2F) Strategy. The article applies a document content analysis of these two documents and uses the six eco-social aspects as a heuristic to analyse and provide descriptive examples of the EGD and the F2F. The content analyses of these documents reveal several elements that advance the understanding of recent EU policies from an eco-social perspective. The study provides knowledge of envisaged compensatory and redistributive measures to the groups and entities affected by the socio-ecological transition and initiatives to enhance a global just transition. Both documents also recognise the primary role of citizens in driving the transition, complementing ongoing eco-social research on participatory processes. The EGD and the F2F reveal also some distinctions in the way the eco-social literature discusses states’ role in eco-social policy-making, the relationship between environmental and social policies and economic growth and intergenerational justice.