The European Green Deal, its narrative of green politics for the next generation and the EU’s search for a stable telos

Abstract

This paper presents the European Green Deal (EGD) as a political project based on a renewed accumulation strategy with green growth at its heart and a new overall narrative of ‘green politics for the next generation’. Together both EGD pillars attempt to stabilise the EU’s statehood and legitimacy by establishing a new hegemonic statehood telos. An analysis of EGD’s reception by civil society is conducted to examine the efforts of the European Commission. From a critical perspective on statehood, which is treated as a social relation, perceptions of civil society actors are key to discussing EGD’s potentially stabilising success. The findings of the actor analysis as a part of a Historical Materialist Political Analysis (HMPA) indicate that EGD can be act as a starting point for a new hegemonic moment in European integration. However, further efforts must be made to safeguard this first positive discursive success.