Improving the EU's Status in the UN and the UN System: An Objective without a Strategy?
The Lisbon Treaty emphasizes the EU’s commitment to multilateralism, stating that it ‘shall seek to develop relations and build partnerships with [...] international, regional or global organisations’ and to ‘promote multilateral solutions to common problems, in particular in the framework of the United Nations’ (Article 21(1), second para., TEU). One of its key goals in external relations is ‘to support and work for effective multilateralism, with the United Nations at its core’. However these global ambitions are often not matched by the level of participation and representation that the EU enjoys in the UN and the UN system. This contribution examines some of the legal and political issues that are at play as the EU attempts to enhance its cooperation with and representation in the UN and the UN system. It examines these issues with regard to UN bodies that have been identified as targets for closer co-operation and others where the EU could potentially pursue upgraded status. It analyses both the EU’s participation in the respective fora and the legal and political potential for improving the Union’s status. The EU not only remains faced with a series of internal and external obstacles as a participant within the UN and the UN system, barring it from taking up its leading role at the global level – it currently also lacks a convincing strategy to overcome them.
Name me your friends and I will tell you who you are : the Union and the member states in the global arena
The past decades have been marked by advance of the European Union(EU) into the world of international organizations. Union membership of organizations remains a relatively rare occurrence. It has obtained status in the EBRD, the WTO, the FAO, the Hague Conference on Private International Law and the Codex Alimentarius Commission. EU's international identity is broken down into several elements. Firstly, despite its newly gained competence for military action and the acquisition of the necessary resources, they argued that it is pacific. Second, with its liberal-democratic agenda centered on peace, liberty, democracy, the rule of law and human rights, it was alleged to be principled. Third, with its preference for deliberation and dislike of polarization. Fourth, with its variety of governance modes sprawled across different levels and locations, it predominantly carries a network-character. Finally, its decision-making, consultation and legislation processes render it a politically open rather than a closed system. Keywords:Codex Alimentarius Commission; European Union(EU); Hague Conference; human rights; liberal-democratic agenda; Private International Law
Upgrading the EU’s role as global actor. Egmont Commentary, 25 January 2011
This Commentary argues that the EU should build up a world-class diplomatic corps, capable of becoming a major actor in global affairs. It is a collective effort by a group of EU policy analysts based at research institutes in Brussels and Leuven. It draws upon the findings and policy recommendations put forward in their new book Upgrading the EU’s Role as Global Actor – Institutions, Law and the Restructuring of European Diplomacy.