ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the legal framework within which the European Union (EU) decision-making process with regard to international negotiations leading to a multilateral environmental agreement (MEA) takes place. Decision-making processes in the EU do not occur in a legal vacuum, as primary law in the Treaties and various rulings by the ECJ constitute the rules of the game, which determine the borders of the political decision-making process. By taking the legal framework as a starting point for the analysis, the chapter meets the critique that 'the legal dimension of principal-agent relations is often under-articulated in studies of EU policy-making. The chapter discusses the pre-Lisbon framework; it also mentions the new elements and dynamics on the EU's external environmental policy that is introduced in the Lisbon Treaty. The legal boundaries of the EU decision-making processes with regard to the negotiation of mixed agreements leave room for political interpretation.
