"The EU - A Cosmopolitan Polity?"

Eriksen, Erik O. (2005) "The EU - A Cosmopolitan Polity?". In: UNSPECIFIED, Austin, Texas. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The parameters of power politics have changed in Europe and the EU exports the rule of law, democracy and human rights worldwide. The constitutionalisation of the Charter of Fundamental Human Rights of the EU is an important step in the process of institutionalising a framework of a cosmopolitan order where violations of human rights can be persecuted as criminal offences according to legal procedures. We may, however, question whether EU’s external foreign and security policy is consistent with cosmopolitan tenets. But the EU is not a cosmopolitan order that aspires to be a world organization. Rather it is one that subjects its actions to the constraints of a higher ranking law. The critical question, then, is the democratic quality of the EU, as there should be no humanitarization without representation.

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