This paper explores whether membership in the EU has shifted the concern of national governments towards the collective interests of the EU to the extent that they prefer to pursue joint policies towards third states rather than individual national policies and place greater emphasis on the ''common good'' than the particular interests of the state they represent. In order to find out whether an ‘EU impact’ (a ‘Europeanisation’) is discernible in national foreign policy decisions of EU member states the paper examines whether the foreign policies that national governments pursue towards third states can be traced back to national interests or whether there is any evidence of an emerging collective identity shaping the substance of the policies they pursue and the approach that they adopt to achieve foreign policy objectives. The paper examines relations with the Russian Federation as a case study. In order to identify and examine the driving forces of national foreign policies towards Russia, the distinction proposed by March & Olsen (1998) between a ‘logic of expected consequences’ and a ‘logic of appropriateness’ is employed. With the analysis of several policy fields of particular importance in member states’ individual and collective relations with Russia (energy supply, human rights and bilateral trade) the paper aims to reveal the extent to which the foreign policy choices of national governments are influenced by a concern for the ‘common good’ of the European Union rather than the costs and benefits of their actions for the state they represent. The paper concludes that national governments’ use of the EU as a foreign policy avenue is informed by their assessment of its utility for achieving national objectives whereas there is only very limited evidence of a convergence (or ‘Europeanisation’) of national foreign policies towards Russia around a common ‘European’ interest and approach.
