This article will contribute to the ongoing debate about the future effectiveness of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria as a tool for real-world sustainability transitions at the national level in the conditions of a crisis of liberal order. The liberal international order is currently facing a transformation of its core principles and contestation by its key actors, leading to a paralysis of current institutions and frameworks. Moreover, this process is also defined by the erosion of global regulation initiatives towards multipolar system consisting of regional mechanism, for instance, in the regulation of sustainable development and climate protection. Drawing on the theoretical framework of constructivist approaches, sustainable development, the EU normative actorness and framing, this study aims to explain the role of ESG in achieving sustainable development in Germany, with particular attention to the implementation of the EU sustainability legislation. The article will analyze, how does the EU normative actorness on its MSs shape in the conditions of the LIO crisis. It will employ a comparative case study approach to assess the ESG-related policies of recent German federal governments. The case study will examine the incorporation of ESG principles into political programs and policy decisions, and how closely they align with EU frameworks such as the European Green Deal, Fit for 55, and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. Moreover, the case study will apply the method of qualitative content analysis of party platforms, legislative documents, and media articles. Moreover, mixed methods will be utilized for the explanation of empirical indicators. Relying on multiple methods, the research will examine how effective ESG integration depends on political coherence, institutional capacity, and economic flexibility, and how it possibly affects the national economy and environmental indicators.

Over the past ten years, European states have been leading the development of global markets in sovereign bonds labelled as ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’. Through this issuance, climate concerns have been introduced in the management of public finances. This paper explain the development and diffusion of sovereign green bonds in Europe. It applies Finnemore and Sikkink’s framework on international norm development to trace the genesis of the first benchmark-sized sovereign green bond, as well as the subsequent adoption of the instrument by European sovereign issuers. Interviews and archival sources document the role of norm entrepreneurs, specifically environmental non-governmental actors, in developing the first sovereign green bonds in France. Subsequently cooperation among European sovereign debt managers was critical in spreading and institutionalizing the cliimte norm. These findings contribute to the literature on the politics of the green transition by highlighting, both, the impact of civil society actors in developing green public finance management norms, and the social processes by which these norms have established themselves.

The European Union's green transition sets the transition to alternative drive technologies for vehicle manufacturing as a priority goal. The transition to battery electric vehicles is transforming the automotive industry, reshaping supply chain structures, inter-firm relations, and technological priorities. Despite a recent slowdown in market growth, electrification continues to drive major structural change, reducing the relevance of internal combustion engine components and elevating the role of battery and technology suppliers from China and Korea.

Based on interviews with 15 automotive firms in Czechia, Hungary, and Poland, the study explores how these dynamics affect supplier networks and firms’ strategic positions. Results show significant reconfiguration of supplier portfolios, combining greater collaboration with intensified competition from Asian firms. While companies are investing in innovation and new capabilities, most face barriers to moving up the supply chain due to limited access to high-value segments. Overall, the study reveals rising complexity, competitive pressures, and the growing strategic importance of partnerships in the electric vehicle era.

The 2022 energy crisis constitutes a window of opportunity for policymaking on the issue of supply security in the European Union. Alongside energy, the crisis raised concerns around critical raw materials supply chains (CRMs) and their security in the context of an accelerating clean transition, creating momentum for policymaking on this issue. The European Commission seized this momentum by announcing a forthcoming critical raw material act (CRMA) in its crisis response plan, REPowerEU. Being the first legislative instrument tackling this issue, the CRMA was meant to herald a regulatory turn for the EU’s critical raw material policy. Yet the CRMA only produced incremental change because of its lack of bindingness and reuse of existing instruments: it is built around non-binding benchmarks, monitoring and strategic projects, instead of full-blown targets and financial instruments. Why then, did the energy crisis’ momentum only result in incremental changes with the CRMA? This article intends to demonstrate that this limited policy change stems from the action of the European Commission, particularly Commissioner Breton, who acted as a policy entrepreneur with the CRMA: they attempted to seize the crisis’ momentum to push for legislative action. Yet the lack of a fully worked out solution available to deal with this new issue forced them into “bricolage”: a behavior where, instead of creating innovative instruments, entrepreneurs tweak existing ones to address a problem they face, limiting the scope of policy change achieved. This article analyzes the CRMA’s policymaking process using the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) and agency function theory. Using theory-testing process tracing, this article leverages interviews with institutional, and stakeholders’ actors involved in the CRMA policymaking, as well as reports from specialist news agencies Agence Europe and Context. This research will contribute to the policy process literature, particularly the MSF, by identifying the mechanisms explaining policy entrepreneur’s successes and failures. Through the identification of those mechanisms, this research will also refine the MSF with an explanation for incremental change.