The “no to CETA” movement in front of the European Parliament: the influence of civil society's framing strategies on parliamentary positions

Reymond, Elisa
(2026) 13th Biennial Conference of the Standing Group on the European Union - ECPR — Location: Catane, Italie (1.July.2026)

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  • Reymond, Elisa
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Abstract
Amid the climate emergency and rising inequalities, the benefits of trade liberalization are increasingly questioned. In response, EU trade policy has undergone significant evolutions, including the incorporation of Trade and Sustainable Development chapters in each agreement and granting the European Parliament new prerogatives in an effort of democratization. Yet, recent major agreements have triggered unprecedented pan-European social movements. A notable case is the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada, provisionally applied since 2017, where civil society organizations (CSO) played a central role by coordinating on a European scale and mobilizing public opinion on sensitive, yet technical issues related to free trade. Taking the CETA as a case study, this paper examines the influence of civil society discourses and frames on the debate within the European Parliament during CETA’s negotiations and ratification process. Drawing on the literature on collective action frames and parliamentary responsiveness, it asks: what framing strategies did CSOs deploy in their opposition campaign? To what extent was the European parliament responsive to these frames? Through a qualitative content analysis of CSOs’ joint communications, and parliamentary resolutions and questions from 2009 to 2017, this study shows that civil society succeeded in framing CETA as a threat to environmental norms and state sovereignty, which largely contributed to structuring the debates and positions taken in the Parliament. Moreover, by directly citing the popular opposition and singling the Commission as the main villain conducting negotiations behind closed doors, MEPs intended to create a “we” against “them”, reusing adversarial frames from civil society.
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Reymond, E. (2026, July 1). The “no to CETA” movement in front of the European Parliament: the influence of civil society’s framing strategies on parliamentary positions. 13th Biennial Conference of the Standing Group on the European Union - ECPR, Catane, Italie. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/279522