The impact of ‘Europe’ on environmental movements: evidence from France and Russia

European states and EU institutions are failing to influence the domestic opportunity context for national environmental movements despite providing substantial financial assistance. It is revealed through the examples of France and Russia that financial influence from European state and EU institutions has not translated into any real change in domestic political opportunity structures for environmental actors. The impact of „Europe‟ on resources is certainly discernable in both member states (France) and non-member states (Russia). Actors within environmental movements benefit from additional resources from EU legislative and project frameworks (in the former case) and both state and non-state aid (in the latter case). The Europeanisation framework provides a set of conceptual tools for analysing the influence of „Europe‟ on domestic interest groups. Through applying Social Movement theory to well-established notions of Europeanisation, we underline the need for mainstream political science approaches to understanding the impact of „Europe‟.

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