Paradiplomacy and its impact on the EU foreign policy

The 21st century is a time of a great power shift and a marvellous rise of regions and cities as political, economic and social actors, which are actively shaping the global stage. Today many European regions and cities have bigger economies than some EU member states and thus co-shape such international issues as climate or migration policy. The paradiplomacy conducted by subnational governments on their own has created an independent level of international relations, weakly constrained by the national foreign policies and yet almost completely autonomous from the EU policymakers. The main aim of this paper is the conceptualisation of the impact that paradiplomacy has on the EU foreign policy. So far, it has been not recognised in academic literature as a potential factor that may hinder integration in the area of foreign affairs. It is a great omission because besides dealing with different political interests of member states, European diplomacy will also have to consider the positions of regional authorities in the near future. Our research shows that already today cities and regions are active through five mechanisms: lobbying on the international arena, using formal powers, vetoing unfavourable decisions, taking direct actions. They conduct these activities within their own countries, but more and more often also within the EU. Thus we are going to examine the influence of sub-state actions on EU foreign policy from two perspectives. The first looks at the rise of regional authority in Europe as logical consequence of the empowerment of regions. It focuses on ways in which sub-state actors exert both informal and formal influence over EU affairs. The second perspective concentrates on the possible methods of employing the paradiplomatic activities of cities and regions within European foreign policy in order to realise the latter’s goals more effectively. Our findings will be illustrated by the case studies of European paradiplomatic relations with the regions from the United States, China, North Africa and Canada.