How the climate movement shaped the EU: protest cycles and democratic spaces in the European green deal

The European Green Deal (EGD), a broad programme aiming at EU climate neutrality by 2050, includes attention to democratic participation. This article unpacks how social movement claims about participatory democracy are reflected in the EGD. It discusses the long-term impacts of social movements through the cumulative effects of protest cycles on complex political contexts and explains how movements’ claims about participatory democracy contributed to shape the EGD. After discussing how these claims have been carried through protest cycles since the turn of the millennium into current demands for citizens’ assemblies by climate justice movement groups, the EU’s actions to include this idea in the EGD and beyond is described. The EU has taken up the idea of citizens’ assemblies, but with important differences from their practice in protest cycles. Attention to the experiences of social movements and co-design approaches could allow for innovative EU policies and improved legitimacy.