The Narrative of European Food Sovereignty: an Instrument for EU Legitimization

Abstract

Presenter: Adalgisa Martinelli, Université Libre de Bruxelles & Luiss Guido Carli Discussant: Kristine Graneng, Free University Berlin Chair: Olga Eisele This seminar explores how umbrella narratives function as sources of legitimacy in composite polities like the European Union (EU). Focusing on the political entrepreneurship of the European Commission (EC), it examines the construction and strategic deployment of "European Food Sovereignty" (EFS) as a flexible, contested narrative frame. Rather than reflecting a radical grassroots agenda, EFS emerges as a polyvalent concept capable of accommodating competing priorities, including economic resilience, democratic participation, and geo-economic. Through frame analysis, the chapter investigates the discursive struggle between the democratic and economic frames of European food sovereignty, highlighting how diverse actors co-construct and instrumentalise the narrative to build coalitions and navigate internal dissensus. While EFS facilitates consensus by functioning as a tool of narrative governance rather than a concrete policy roadmap, its conceptual vagueness also opens the door to diverging national frames, such as forms of gastronationalism, that may undermine its unitary potential. Ultimately, the thesis reflects on a central paradox: in the EU’s hands, food sovereignty (in opposition to global capitalism) can be reframed to serve the logic of market liberalism under the guise of democracy and bottom-up decision-making, raising the question of whether food sovereignty can ever truly escape the gravitational pull of embedded capitalism in the Union.