The Power of Framing: Institutional Policy Entrepreneurship in the EU's Wildfire Risk Management (WFRM)

This article explains why the European Union Wildfire Risk Management instruments have evolved since the 1980s, even though the underlying patterns of wildfire events have remained largely unchanged. It argues that these changes stem from competing institutional actors promoting distinct policy frames within the European Union's (EU) multilevel governance system. Using an institutionalist Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) combined with a framing approach, it shows how policy instruments are revised through interactions among actor constellations over time. Empirically, three phases are identified: a preventive market framing in the 1980s; an environmental framing combining prevention and response in the early 2000s; and, since the 2010s, a risk management approach anchored in civil protection instruments with a predominantly reactive focus. The article contributes to MSF scholarship by applying it to the EU and demonstrating how power‐based actor constellations, shifting institutional competences, and EU‐specific path dependence shape policy change through layering rather than major reform.