The European Union as an International Actor: Challenges the

European Union faces in its relations with other International

Organisations.

Martin Sishekanu 2019.

Abstract

This study seeks to analyse the European Union’s diplomatic goals in its relations with other
international organisations, it also seeks to analyse the major obstacles the European Union
faces in international organisations. The European Union is involved in various aspects of
international relations and manages to influence international relations. However, the
European Union faces a lot of challenges in international relations, mostly as a result of it
being an international organisation, it is unable to join or have full member rights in certain
international organisations. The other major challenge the European Union face are due to
European member states not speaking with one voice. In order for the EU to be an effective
international actor, it needs to cooperate and speak with one voice. If each EU member
continues to put its national needs first and EU collective needs second, the EU will continue
to face challenges in achieving its goal of becoming a global actor.

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The European Union has been an active player in international relations, it maintains
diplomatic relations with a majority of countries in the world. It has strategic partnerships
with key international players, it is deeply engaged with emerging powers around the globe
and has developed close relations, through political cooperation and economic integration
with most of the immediate neighbours (European Commission n.d). The European Union
(EU) aims at stability and region-wide cooperation, in political, economic and security-
related fields. It is involved in various fields such as (but not limited to) humanitarian aid,
protection of human rights, security, democracy and rule of law and environmental
protection.

The EU seeks to promote its values and beliefs throughout the world. In doing so, it becomes
vital for the EU to cooperate with other international organizations and institutions. Wessel
and Odermatt (2018) claimed that the relationship of the EU with other international
organisations and institutions has developed mainly as a result of the increasingly active role
of the EU as a global actor.

The EU seeks to become visible and active in international organisations. Wessel and
Odermatt (2018) have the view that, if the EU is to be an effective global actor and influence
developments at international level, it should closely cooperate and engage with other
international bodies. Wessel and Blockmans (2014) noted that the other reason why the EU
has relations with international organisations, is because international organisations influence
EU policies, many EU rules are influenced by the decision making processes of other
international organisations.

Wessel and Blockmans (2014) further argued that the EU cooperates with other international
organisations because EU treaty law requires it to. For example, Article 220 of the Lisbon
treaty (2007) requires the EU to develop relations with international organisations such as the
United Nations and its specialised agencies, The Council of Europe, the Organisation for
Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development.

The EU’s relations with other international organisations is in two ways. The EU either
participates as an observer (Observer status) under this status, the EU mostly attends formal
meetings and in some organisations such as the UN, it has speaking rights. However, as an
observer, the EU does not have the right to vote. The other type of membership is full
participation, under this type of membership, the EU enjoys full membership rights including

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the right to vote. This article seeks to examine the main diplomatic goals the EU has in its
relations with other international organisation, it also seeks to analyse the major challenges
the EU faces in its relations with other international organisations.

The EU is a member of various international organisations. According to the European Union

(2018) The EU’s foreign policy with other international organisations is based on diplomacy
and respect for international rules. The EU is involved in various aspects of international
relations such as trade, humanitarian aid and development cooperation. In its diplomatic
relations with other international organisations, the EU mostly seeks to preserve and promote
peace, strengthen international cooperation, develop and consolidate democracy, the rule of
law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

In order for the EU to achieve those goals, it maintains partnerships with the world’s key
players, including international organisations. In foreign policy, the EU’s ultimate decision
making body is the European Council (European Union 2018).

The EU is part of a lot of political institutions such as the United Nations and the Council of
Europe. According to Sieglinde (2008), it is impossible for the EU to become a member of
the United Nations because the United Nations Charter (Article 4) only provides membership
to states only. However, the EU has a permanent observer status at the United Nations. It
does not have voting rights but it has enhanced observer status. Under this status, the EU has
the right to speak in debates among representatives or before individual states, it has the right
to submit proposals and amendments.

According to Parlementaire Monitor (2018) the EU’s main diplomatic objectives at the
United Nations is to focus on peace and conflict prevention, promotion of human rights, and
expanding global engagement on issues such as climate action, the environment, migration,
counterterrorism and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The EU also cooperates with international organisations in the field of security. The North
Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is one of the international organisations the EU works
with. The EU and NATO share strategic interests and face similar challenges. According to
the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (2019) the EU and NATO cooperate on issues of
common interest and are working side by side in crisis management, capability development
and political consultations. One important aspect of the EU-NATO relationship is the Berlin
Plus agreement 2003. Under this agreement, the EU can make use of NATO assets and
capabilities for EU led crisis management operations.

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The EU is part of many international organisations, it will not be possible to analyse all the
international organisations the EU is part of in this assignment, however, Sieglinde (2008)
provided a summary of the organisations the EU is part of.

EU external representation in international institutions. (Sieglinde 2008 p6)

Institution EU representation
Council of member states, contacts of presidency and Commission with Council of
Europe Europe on various levels
UN General Coordination among EU member states, EU has observer status
Assembly
UN Security EU member states represent EU views.
Council
WTO Full participant,
OECD Commission is 'full participant' alongside member States.
IMF coordination, mixed constituencies of EU member states and non-members;
observer status for European Central Bank in Executive Board and The
International Monetary And Financial Committee.

World Bank coordination, mixed constituencies of EU member states and non-members;

EU presidency speaks; observer status for Commission in Joint
IMF/World Bank Development Committee
G8 summits member states, EU 'full participant' (Commission president and EU
presidency)
Climate change EC full participant; presidency, assisted by Commission
negotiations
Biodiversity EC full participant; Commission, supervised by committee, and/or
negotiations presidency

The EU is part of many different international organisations, it has various goals and
diplomatic aims. However, the EU faces a lot of challenges in international organisations.
Challenges ranging from legal aspects to internal aspects. All these challenges affect the
efficiency of the EU as a global actor. The following section of the assignment seeks to
analyse the major challenges the EU faces in international organisations.

From the perspective of realism, states are the most important and main actors in
international relations. International organisations are mostly created for cooperation between
states. Wessel and Odermatt (2018) argued that the EU under international law is incapable

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of being considered a state. As a result of the EU not being a state, it is hard or impossible for
it to participate in certain international organisations. Only a few international institutions
allow for other international organisations to become a full member.

For example, in the United Nations, the EU cannot become a full member because article 4 of
the United Nations Charter (1945) clearly outlines that membership in the United Nations is
only open to states. The European Union has extensive competences in areas such as energy,
humanitarian work and aviation, despite it having those competences, it is barred from full
participation in the global decision-making process of organisations such as the International
Civil Aviation Organisation, the International Energy Agency and the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees because it is not a state (Wessel and Odermatt 2018).

The EU also receives negative perceptions from other countries, certain organisations such as
the World Trade Organisation, allow the EU to have full membership, however, Julija (2011)
noted that there is some criticism on EU representation in the World Trade Organisation. He
claimed that some countries especially the United States view the EU as having ‘double
weight of votes’. Since both the European Union and its Member States are formally
represented in the WTO process, it is argued that EU interests have double weight in the
WTO. However, article IX of the WTO agreement determines that the number of votes the
EU has cannot exceed the number of the individual EU Member States.

According to the World Trade Organisation, WTO members have to follow the principle of
trade without discrimination, under (most-favoured nation) countries cannot normally
discriminate between their trading partners, if you grant someone or a country a special
favour (such as lower customs duty rate), you have to do the same for all other WTO
members. However some countries such as the United States claim that the EU practices
double standards in the WTO, WTO is meant for countries, it is meant to promote trade
between all countries, however, the EU mostly seeks to promote interests of only its member
countries. It goes against the principle of trade without discrimination because it shows
favours to only a specific group of countries and does not show those same favours to non-
EU member states.

Another challenge the EU has in its relations with other international organisations is as a
result of EU internal issues. According to Sieglinde (2008), the EU sometimes does not
consistently speak with one voice in global governance. According to Lehne (2017), EU
member states might share a common goal, but might also have divergent interests that get in

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their way, such as special relationships with outside powers, particular regional interests,
competition for economic gains or internal political constraints.

Congressional Research Service (2018) provides an example of how internal political

constraints have affected the EU. Congressional Research Service (2018) noted that, over the
last several years, many EU countries have seen an increase in support for populist,
nationalist political parties. These parties are often named ‘Eurosceptic’ because they are
mostly fuelled by concerns and worries that too much national sovereignty has been
surrendered to the EU. Italy, Germany, Finland, France, Hungary, Greece, Denmark,
Netherlands and Poland are among those EU countries with dominant populist parties, and to
at least some extent, Eurosceptic parties.

Congressional Research Service (2018) claimed that a lot Eurosceptic parties did well in the
2014 European Parliament elections, and Eurosceptic parties have made significant gains in
national and local elections in some countries. For example, parties with varying degrees of
Eurosceptic views lead the government or are part of coalition governments in Italy,
Hungary, Poland and Finland. Most of these political parties advocate for EU reforms and a
looser EU in which member states would retain greater sovereignty, others call for an end to
the Eurozone or even to the EU itself. Such Eurosceptic parties are challenging the generally
pro-European establishment parties and have put pressure on mainstream leaders to embrace
some of their positions. (For example the 2016 public referendum in the United Kingdom).
The disagreements over migration policies have also produced significant divisions in the EU
and brought about a lack of trust among EU member states (Congressional Research Service
2018). Such internal divisions weaken the EU’s principle of solidarity, ability to cooperate
and to speak with one voice on the global level and in international organisations.

Sieglinde (2008) also shared a similar view, he also agreed that the EU does not consistently
speak with one voice, especially in areas of high politics such as decisions to do with national
security and national survival. He noted that most countries do not want to surrender their
sovereignty to a supranational body. For example, it is easy for the EU to speak with one
voice in international environmental negotiations but not in financial decisions.

According to Jorgensen and Wessel (2013) the EU 3 (France, Germany and the United
Kingdom) prefer to represent themselves directly in certain international agreements, for
example, the EU 3 grouping prefers to engage in exclusive diplomatic interaction with Iran
and only uses the EU to amplify their policies (the policy of the EU 3).

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Rasmussen (2009) also shared a similar point of view, according to him, EU member states
have their own diplomacy programmes through which they seek to project their national
identities and messages according to their domestic political priorities. For example Lehne
(2017) noted that, most EU member states support the accession of Western Balkans to the
EU, but some of the immediate regional neighbours such as Greece, Romania and Croatia,
which stand to benefit most from this policy’s success) insist that their bilateral disputes in
the Western Balkans need to be resolved before these countries can join the EU. The narrow
national interest of EU member states trumps the collective objective of the EU which makes
it hard for the EU to have one voice.

Another example is to do with the Middle East peace process. According to Lehne (2017) the
EU is one of the largest donors to the Palestinians, and all member states support a viable
two-state solution, however it is difficult for the EU to translate its verbal support of a two-
state solution into political action because of the different attitudes among member states
toward Israel.

The other challenge the EU faces is to do with its credibility, the EU seeks to be a normative
power, it uses its normative power in international organisations. According to Skolimowska
(2015) normative power refers to the EU’s ability to spread the norms and standards of
European integration into the international communities. Norms and standards as such the
respect for human dignity, liberty, democracy, rule of law. However, the Congressional
Research Service (2018) noted that they are concerns in Europe of what many EU officials
view as democratic backsliding in some member states, particularly Poland and Hungary.
Many EU officials have voiced concerns about the rule of law and corruption in Romania and
Malta.

Skolimowska (2015) noted that, the EU is seen to have double standards, for example, the EU
declared that it would take an active part in building democracy in countries affected by the
Arab Spring, but at the same time, the EU supported authoritarian regimes in order to stop the
wave of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Such double standards affect the EU’s
effectiveness in international organisations. Because on one side, the EU claims to promote
certain standards and values but in reality, it does the opposite and does not lead by example.

In conclusion, the EU is a global actor, it is involved in various aspects of international

relations such as politics, law and economy. It has managed to influence international
relations and promote its standards and values. For example, the EU has been influential in

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the creation of various climate change agreements and other international relations
agreements. The EU derives its power from its ability to influence its member states to have
one voice and to cooperate. However, the EU faces a lot of challenges in international
relations, mostly as a result of it being an international organisation, it is unable to join or
have full member rights in certain organisations. The other major challenge the EU faces is
due to EU member states not speaking with one voice. The EU member states have very
different historical backgrounds and as a result of that, their understanding and development
of foreign policy differ. Geographical locations, culture and linguistic all help in shaping the
interests of each country.

Some EU member states are richer than other EU member state, some EU member states are
permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and other EU member states are
more affected by certain problems such as migration. All these differences make it hard for
the EU to speak with one voice. Getting different voices to sing the same tune is a very hard
thing to do (Solana n.d). It is important for EU countries to understand that, in order for the
EU to be an international actor, it needs to cooperate and speak with one voice. If each EU
member continues to put its national needs first and EU collective needs second, the EU will
continue to face challenges in achieving its goal of becoming a global actor.

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