Streams, windows and policy entrepreneurship: Analysing the agenda-setting and policy formulation of the EU’s Just Transition Fund.

Abstract

Taru Leppänen

‘Streams, windows and policy entrepreneurship: Analysing the agenda-setting and policy formulation of the EU’s Just Transition Fund’

This research focuses on analysing the policy process of the EU’s Just Transition Fund (JTF) during the stages of agenda-setting and policy formulation. The central question of this research is: How did the factors and actors involved in the agenda-setting of the JTF influence the policy formulation of the Commission’s proposal? The theoretical framework is built on the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) and adapted to the EU’s political context. A qualitative single case study of the JTF is used to allow the researcher to gain a comprehensive understanding of the process. This research finds that the policy entrepreneurship of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) party, the MEP Jerzy Buzek and Poland played key roles in pushing the idea onto the EU decision agenda. However, only the S&D was able to clearly extend their influence to policy formulation. The policy formulation was also considerably influenced by adjacent institutional factors. The findings suggest that a holistic framework taking into account both structure and agency enables a more comprehensive analysis of EU policymaking processes. This research hopes to contribute to policy research by increasing the understanding of different actors and factors in the agenda-setting and policy formulation of climate policies in the EU.