ABSTRACT
In the initial European Green Deal (EGD) communication, the European Commission emphasises the external promotion of sustainable development (SD), specifically through a ‘green deal diplomacy’. This chapter identifies challenges of implementing a ‘green deal diplomacy’ by drawing on insights from Europeanisation and norm research. Accordingly, the EU's diplomatic leverage is expected to vary depending on the extent to which EU norms resonate with local norms. Against this backdrop, we ask to what extent regional organisations (ROs), as key partners of the EU, recognise the comprehensive understanding of SD that the EU adopted with the Amsterdam Treaty. The comparative analysis of 63 extant ROs reveals that the majority of ROs recognises the SD norm only in a shallow way, which is hardly compatible with the EU's comprehensive SD norm. In other words, the EU is confronted with an enormous normative misfit at the regional level. While this implies less diplomatic leverage, it also points to the relevance of a ‘green deal diplomacy’ to establish common understandings in the first place.
