NGOs: Guardians of the law or symbolic assemblies? - A quantitative study comparing the presence of NGOs and environmental policy compliance in the EU

Abstract

The climate debate is heating up and political leaders are meeting all over the world for discussions regarding the state of our planet. Consequently, numerous of resolutions and treaties have been created by the European Union containing impressive sets of policy promises for the safekeeping of our environment. Less impressive is the actual compliance with these treaties by the same states. This thesis will closer examine Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and their contributions to change environmental policy compliance, but also attempt to analyze their availability to influence compliance depending on different types of laws. Utilizing a quantitative method, the analysis shows that NGOs have promising opportunities to hold EU member states accountable for violating against environmental policy by sending complaints to the European Commission. However, this is only true for NGOs in member states who have recently joined the Union. As this thesis demonstrates inner dynamics of NGOs availability to affect environmental policy compliance, it further opens up opportunities for fruitful discussions and future research paths.