Norm Contestation Through Discourse Networks – The Case of the Nature Restoration Regulation

The European Union’s Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR), adopted in 2024 as part of the European Green Deal, aims to address decades of ecological degradation by setting binding ecosystem restoration targets, including explicit measures for forests. Its legislative process was marked by intense political contestation: environmental NGOs and scientists promoted ambitious restoration goals and ecological responsibility for future generations, while forest associations and conservative parties warned of socioeconomic costs, property rights violations, and overregulation. These controversies show deeper normative contestation over environmental issues within European institutions and across member states. We investigate how such contestation unfolds in public discourse, asking: (1) which norms were addressed and contested in European media debates on the NRR; (2) how actor constellations around these norms developed; and (3) how contestation dynamics contribute to the legitimation of EU environmental governance in forest restoration. Our analysis is grounded in norm contestation theory, which conceptualises norms as dynamic, context-dependent practices whose meaning evolves through use and reinterpretation. We apply Discourse Network Analysis (DNA) to newspaper coverage of the NRR between 2022 and 2025, including the Commission proposal in 2022, the regulation’s final adoption in 2024, and the first drafting phase of National Restoration Plans. Two complementary network types are constructed: concept networks mapping how environmental and forest-related norms are linked or opposed and congruence networks showing which actors align or polarise around competing normative claims. By combining norm research from International Relations with social network analysis methods, we contribute to the understanding of policy legitimacy in contested EU environmental governance and demonstrate how complex norm dynamics can be operationalised and visualised in large, heterogeneous debates.