"The European Union and the International System: A Framework for Analysis"

Murphy, Anna. (1995) "The European Union and the International System: A Framework for Analysis". In: UNSPECIFIED. (Unpublished)

Preview

PDF Download (1816Kb) | Preview

Abstract

[From the introduction]. This paper attempts to develop an analytical framework within which one can assess the EC/EU response and its role in the new Europe in the 1990s. The need for such a framework stems from deficiencies in the existing literature on the international role of the EC. In the past, a key difficulty in generating an all-encompassing theory to explain the external behaviour of the EC stemmed from its sui generis and unfinished nature. It is suggested that the international role of the EC/EU can best be addressed by considering it to be a system of regional governance. It is characterised by shared competences with the member states (the term governance is used to encompass the institutions, instruments, policies, competences, decision-making and activities of the EC/EU including the interaction between EC/EU institutions and the member states). This draws attention to three levels of analysis: the national, regional, and international. There is a dense interplay between the national and regional (EU) level in the generation of policy. Action also occurs in response to change and pressure from both the national and international domains. The system of regional governance identifies the main points of interactions between the EC/EU and the international system, its capacity to act, and the characteristics of the EC/EU which distinguish it and its members from the wider European system. The second part of the paper examines the interaction of the EC/EU in the international system and identifies certain roles and functions it fulfils. Finally. the framework is applied to a case study of the EC/EU relations with the four Visegrad states (Poland, Hungary, the Czech, and Slovak republics) over the period 1989-1994. This supports the proposition that the system of regional governance provides a useful framework within which one can analyse the role of the EU in Europe and in the international system. That role consists of a) promoting political and economic order in Central Europe; and b) representing and balancing the interests of the member states vis-a-vis Central Europe. Finally, preparations for enlargement to the Visegrad states blurred the boundaries between internal and external policy-making of the Eu, on the one hand, and, on the other, created linkages between enlargement and the future course of the European Union.

Actions (login required)