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Analysing the Power of the EU

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The EU's Power in Inter-Organisational Relations

Part of the book series: The European Union in International Affairs ((EUIA))

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Abstract

This chapter analyses the EU as an organisation that does have power: in fact, the EU’s power is constantly debated, either for there being too much of it, or too little. The power of the EU is particularly interesting to study. It is not a typical international organisation, perhaps not an organisation at all: its exclusive competences, autonomy, constitution-like treaty basis and citizens of the EU make it sui generis. Still, it is important not to isolate the EU as if knowledge about it could not be generalised. Instead, it is theoretically central to the nature of power and power dynamics. Similarly, the EU is empirically central as it is the development of the EU that has accelerated and intensified the interaction between international organisations, clearly visible among the three organisations analysed here. The chapter looks at the attitudes towards EU power, intertwined with expectations; it tackles the question of the specificity of the EU’s power, characterised as, for example, normative, civilian or soft, and analyses the change in the nature of the EU, its “power to” and its “power over.”

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Cf. Lefkofridi and Schmitter (2015, 2016).

  2. 2.

    For an overall summary of a decade of scholarship, see Manners (2013) (and the whole Cooperation and Conflict theme number). On the notion and its criticism, see also, for instance, Hyde-Price (2006), Sjursen (2006) and Nunes (2011).

  3. 3.

    Both persuasion and shaping the discourse are related to credibility that in turn is related to expertise or knowledge. This will be looked at in the next chapter.

  4. 4.

    Manners (2009a, b, c) quoted in Forsberg (2011).

  5. 5.

    Larsen quotes Morini et al. (2010).

  6. 6.

    Manners (2002) actually wanted to overcome the civilian-military debate with the notion of normative power.

  7. 7.

    Duchêne’s ideas are summarised also in Zielonka (1998).

  8. 8.

    Cf. even the Special Issue of Journal of European Public Policy 2/2006, edited by Helene Sjursen.

  9. 9.

    Cf. Manners (2013) for extensive literature on normative power originating outside of Europe, including particularly Chinese scholarship.

  10. 10.

    Cf. Nielsen (2013) on soft power and the capability- expectations gap.

  11. 11.

    When answering how the EU could get the transformative power back, she interestingly comes to list power resources of a kind: vision, patience, consistency and credibility (Grabbe 2014).

  12. 12.

    Duchêne (1973) presents a similar thought: there are certain “inner characteristics” of the EC t hat it needs to remain true to in order to make the most of its opportunities (cited in Smith 2005).

  13. 13.

    But the strongest conditionality is attached to membership; once in, the EU starts to lose its power (Grabbe 2014).

  14. 14.

    This resembles also Boulding’s (1989) integrative power. Other agencies may have similar power in their fields.

  15. 15.

    Schumacher (2012: 189, 192, 203) sees knowledge and expertise as the most frequently exchanged resource between institutions and looks at two mechanisms of influence between the EU and the Council of Europe: one enabling, resource exchange, and one constraining, domain restriction. His analysis shows that the CoE has essential interest in supplying information on monitoring results, expertise and norms for the EU, to enhance the implementation of its own standards and conventions through the EU. But it also influences the contents and scope of EU policy, as exemplified by restriction as it protested against the mandate of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (perceived as invasion into its core competence) and got its point through so that the agency does not systematically monitor the human rights situation in general.

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  1. School of Management, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    Hanna Ojanen

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Ojanen, H. (2018). Analysing the Power of the EU. In: The EU's Power in Inter-Organisational Relations. The European Union in International Affairs. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40908-9_3

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