Ideas and Reflections on a Common European Foreign Policy. Conceptual Basics, Procedures and Characteristics (PDF)

Essay from the year 2022 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, , language: English, abstract: This essay analyzes the role of the EU as a global actor, and focuses on the origins, causes, and strength (or absence) of the EU's foreign policy in its external relations with major regions of the world.

First, it should be articulated that the EU is a European project, namely an association of states. It has its own competencies and resources to act. The EU system is based on supra-national integration, intergovernmental cooperation, and international cooperation in a multilateral world order system. The common European foreign policy includes both individual actions, decisions, and concepts as well as an overarching pattern of relationships that form the basis of an almost mature overall strategy.

Next, it can be observed that since the end of the Cold War, the EU has gradually developed its external relations and foreign policy and has become a global player in international affairs and world politics. In the last decade, the interregionalism and multilateralism have become a key element of the external relations and foreign policy of the EU's multi-level system. In fact, the Union has quickly become the center of many interregional cooperation agreements and relationships with many regions around the world in a global framework. Promoting regional and interregional relations not only justifies and strengthens the EU's own existence and effectiveness as a global actor. The strategy also promotes the legitimacy and status of other regions and leads to a deepening of cross-sectoral interregional trade and economic ties, political dialogue, development cooperation, cultural ties, and security cooperation.

In the light of this introduction, the following key questions will be discussed and evaluated:
. What a common European foreign policy is, and how it is to be characterized,
. how the EU's foreign policy is structured, and what it is based on,
. what foreign policy powers and instruments the EU has,
. what the goals, visions, and mission of an EU's foreign policy are,
. on which theoretical concepts the EU's foreign policy is based,
. what role the EU plays as a global player in world politics.