Making EU Foreign Policy Go Round: The Significance of Informality for the Survival of Multilateralism – A Book Roundtable

Abstract

In an era of multipolar competition and eroding multilateralism, international organizations like the European Union (EU) face mounting pressures, yet states still grapple with cooperation dilemmas demanding diplomatic solutions. In an effort to cope with these challenges, countries have been turning to informal modes of cooperation. The European Union (EU) is no exception to this general trend. including within the highly institutionalized EU. No area of EU policy-making is as clearly governed by informality as the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy/Common Security and Defense Policy (CFSP/CSDP), Yet, the role of informality in EU foreign policy remains largely underexplored and the IR scholarship tends to conceptualize – and account for – informality in rather narrow terms. Marianna Lovato's Making EU Foreign Policy Go Round: The Significance of Informality for the Survival of Multilateralism (BUP) sheds light on the unique role of informality in EU foreign policy (and beyond). This roundtable centers on the book's pioneering analysis of informality in EU foreign policy, probing why member states embrace it, how they operationalize it, and its consequences for multilateral effectiveness. The core argument posits that when formal institutions fall short of states' needs and interests, actors pivot to "agile" negotiation arenas, informal practices, and roles—all while upholding shared institutional norms. Drawing on original interviews with national diplomats and EU officials, the book demonstrates informality's pivotal role in sustaining cooperation, from the sanctions regime against Russia and joint maritime operations to expanded EU defense initiatives. After a short presentation of the book's key contributions by the author, the participants in this roundtable – Ana Juncos, Karolina Pomorska and Gergana Noutcheva – will interrogate the book's findings: Does informality enhance or undermine EU agency on the global stage? How might its lessons apply to minilateralism beyond Europe? The discussion will be moderated by Ben Tonra.

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