Autonomy and solidarity in EU foreign policy

Achieving strategic autonomy has become a key objective for the European Union. This objective is usually considered to represent a shift away from the Union’s past stance as a ‘normative’ power. The needs and rights of others are not expected to figure prominently in the Union’s quest for strategic autonomy. Instead, most observers expect this quest to bring the Union to concentrate mostly on enhancing its ability to protect and project its own interests and values. In this paper, I discuss to what extent, and how, a commitment to solidarity can be reconciled with the Union’s ambition to become strategically autonomous. In so doing, I suggest a twofold shift from existing approaches, which might have implications for how we understand the relationship between solidarity and autonomy. Firstly, I suggest that autonomy is primarily a political question and secondly, I emphasise that autonomy is inherently relational. While the Union can build up capabilities and flex its muscles, as well as set its goals independently, to realise those goals it depends not only on itself, but also on others. Autonomy cannot be achieved in isolation, and the question of how to interact with others is therefore central to the quest for autonomy. Bearing in mind that what one actor can achieve depends on the wants of others, solidarity is not only be a ‘moral virtue’. It becomes a practical necessity. Based on this twofold shift, I suggest that in addition to a purely instrumental conception of autonomy, we may also consider an ethical political and a reflexive conception. I discuss how solidarity becomes an issue in these to conceptions, while it would be less important in the first conception. Aiming also the find out if these conceptions have any practical relevance for the way the Union approaches its quest for autonomy, the paper analyses how representatives of the Union justify and explain the ambition of strategic autonomy in core EU documents.