Studying the EU as a global governance actor: A nascent research agenda and its methodological challenges

This article sets the stage for the panel and provides insights on what is the common research topic of the different papers presented on the panel: how and if we can talk about the EU as a global governance actor, and what is the meaning of the nascent nature of the EU in its efforts to participating to global governance. While still a relatively new research agenda from a policy and governance angle, looking at the EU and the complexity of its global presence leads to two main questions. One that concerns the analytical challenge of defining the object of study and another one that follows from the first one and relates to how to study the EU global presence from a methodological perspective. The article proposes to attempt answering the first question by looking at existing research analysing the different forms of agency through which the EU global policies are developed (agency within the EU institutions, in the interaction between the EU and its Member States, and between the EU and third actors such as non-EU countries and other international organisations). As a consequence, the article provides a scoping study that aims to identify gaps in the existing literature while looking at the agency-structure nexus in the EU global governance efforts. Through this, the article is proposed with the ambition of establishing an updated research agenda on EU global governance and its challenges. The second question is answered through a methodological approach on how to study the EU as a global governance actor. Once the object of study has been established, the article proposes that methodologically we need to acknowledge the importance of considering the complexity of the EU as a policy system. That leads into unpacking the elements of such a system, talking about the institutional feedback loops coming from both the inside and the outside policy environment, the related unintended consequences and the implications for the actors that get to contribute to the adaptability of the system.