How does politicisation affect the ratification of mixed EU trade agreements? The case of CETA

This article examines how politicization has affected the ratification of the EU–Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) in EU member states. The study is based on the conceptual framework of discursive postfunctionalism. This approach builds on postfunctionalist arguments about the constraining impact of politicization on national governments’ EU-related policy making, but seeks to specify them further by examining mediating factors between political contestation and decisions of national policy makers. We test the explanatory power of discursive postfunctionalism by combining a comparative overview of CETA-related politicization and ratification patterns in all EU member states with in-depth case studies of five states that have seen particularly intense public contestation. Our research shows that politicization does not necessarily prevent the ratification of CETA; rather, its effects on policy making are mitigated by institutional provisions on the involvement of domestic institutions, the composition of government coalitions, and the discursive strategies of national governments.