Strategies of Southern Embassy in Brussels to Address the EU ‘Green’ Laws (PhD project - Edwin Ramadhan)

Introduction

The proliferation of EU 'green' laws forms immense challenges: First, they restrict importing global commodities like palm oil, soy, wood, beef, cocoa, coffee, and their derivative products, if their production contributes to deforestation or indirect land use change. Second, the EU policy documents show that the 'green' laws are not only norm-driven but also interest-driven and neglect the smallholders in the Global South. Third, the EU 'green' laws are unilateral and technically complex measures with few formal possibilities for public authorities from the South to engage in policy dialogue with the EU on draft laws.

There is a lack of a Southern perspective in scientific and policy debates on EU 'green' laws, the European Green Deal, and the Brussels effect. A few scholars have reviewed the EU as a regulatory hegemony critically. Still, studies have not extensively geared towards EU 'green' laws. Therefore, it is necessary to address this limitation by exploring how Global South states, embassies and diplomats address 'green' EU laws.

Very little is known about the strategies of Southern embassies in addressing the EU 'green' laws, and this research wants to fill that knowledge gap.

Empirically, this research wants to generate insights into the strategies used by three Brussels-based embassies from the Global South to address the EU 'green' laws on renewable energy, deforestation-free products, and corporate sustainability due diligence. Theoretically, the research wants to conceptualize sustainability diplomacy from a Southern perspective, which has yet to be done so far despite the contestation and need for dialogue on EU 'green' laws and their extraterritorial reach and effects. Finally, this research is a great opportunity to share lessons for new generations of Global South diplomats in sustainable food and agriculture.

Description

The research objects of this research are government officials from selected embassies, namely the ambassador, agriculture attaché, or diplomat, and other relevant respondents who engage with EU ‘green’ laws.

The primary data collection will be conducted in Belgium. In addition, semi-structured interviews will also be held in one of the Southern state’s homes or headquarters to gain a comprehensive insight. Using several approaches such as participatory observation, in-depth and semi-structured interviews, and workshops (under Chatham House rules).

The stored data will be managed according to the data management policy of Wageningen UR and the Public Administration and Policy group.

The duration of this PhD project is 4 years (48 months) and is funded by the Indonesian Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP), the Republic of Indonesia.

The output of this project is four peer-reviewed articles that will be incorporated into the PhD thesis as the main chapters.