The Institute of European Studies (now: Brussels school of Governance) is proud to announce that on 5 September 2017 Associate Lisanne Groen was awarded the prestigious UACES (the academic association for contemporary European Studies) Best PhD Thesis Prize for her thesis (2016) on the effectiveness of the European Union (EU) in multilateral climate change and biodiversity negotiations. The prize is 100 British Pounds and the winning scholar is invited to attend the UACES Annual Conference as a guest. The awards ceremony took place during the conference dinner of the 47th UACES Annual Conference in Krakow, Poland.
The prize is awarded to the PhD thesis that made an original and promising contribution to research in the area of contemporary European studies. Lisanne obtained her PhD in October 2016 at the IES under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Sebastian Oberthür. In her thesis, she explains the degree of effectiveness of the EU at important decision-making moments in the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in seven case studies. She argues that the degree of fit of the EU’s activities with its position in the international constellation of power and interests of all negotiating parties has a significant influence on its effectiveness score. The EU can only reach a high degree of effectiveness if the degree of fit of its activities is high.
Lisanne is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability in Tokyo, Japan. There, she analyses and evaluates the policies for low-carbon technology transfer pursued by Germany, France, the UK, the EU, and multilateral partnerships in which EU member states participate.
