Global governance by the EU

Abstract

The EU conducts global governance in multifaceted ways. In this paper, we address how the EU engages with various global governance actors and how it navigates these relational webs. We draw particular attention to the EU’s competences, its structuring powers and how it navigates its institutional environment to answer these questions. First, we highlight that the EU’s issue scope and membership has increased over time, triggering an increased interest in global governance issues and actors. As a result, partnerships have been increasingly established with other countries and organizations. Second, we discuss the competences that the EU has across the different issue areas and demonstrate that its competences vary across them, showing that the EU does not always act as one. These two sections set the stage for examining not only the formal powers that the EU has in speaking and acting on behalf of its membership but also its structural powers that can shape global governance arrangements through issue linkages and regulations. Third, a focus on the EU’s institutional landscape enables us to draw attention to its strategies employed to navigate global governance arrangements. We show how the EU makes use of densely institutionalized governance spaces and exploits overlaps in membership and mandate with other organizations to pursue its preferences. Overall, this analytical lens helps decenter the EU and question EU-narratives about its liberal aspirations and vision for global governance.