The EU as a Global Actor

Abstract

As the world’s largest aid donor and a powerful trading bloc, systematically engaging with 150 countries across the globe and accounting for more than a quarter of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the EU has exuded the potential of becoming a credible global actor since the 1998 Saint-Malo Declaration. In spite of its favorable dispositions, however, it has often been regarded as ‘an economic giant but a political dwarf’ (Moïsi and Mertes, 1995), and has sometimes even been dismissed as a ‘military worm’ (Bossuyt, 2007). The entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, firmly anchoring the principles of democracy, the rule of law and human rights into the EU’s external relations, sought to strengthen the EU’s global role by doing away with the former pillar-structure and introducing the institutional novelty of an overarching European External Action Service (EEAS), serving the double-hatted High Representative/Vice-President of the European Commission to implement a more effective and coherent EU Foreign Policy. Three years into its formal existence, however, a well-rounded Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is still deemed to be at a ‘complicated crossroads’ (Balfour and Raik, 2013), while alarming accounts of foreign policy ‘re-nationalization’ (Telò and Ponjaert, 2013), increasingly ‘aggressive’ external policies (Kleimann, 2013) and the impartial enforcement of human rights standards (Huber, 2013) are surging. Addressing the EU’s ever-changing quest for ‘actorness’ (Boening et al, 2013; Bretherton and Vogler 2006), this panel will assess (i) the EU’s performance in deploying and upholding a credible CFSP; (ii) the policy instruments at its disposal to structurally influence international relations (Keukeleire and Delreux, 2014); (iii) the tensions between its normative, commercial and security aspirations; and (iv) the institutional (post-Lisbon) structure devised to support a coherent, effective and legitimate EU foreign policy.

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