As with any form of contemporary global governance, the impact of the global Aid for Trade Initiative (2006) has been mixed. However, to dismiss it as a failure would be premature. The co‐ordination system established was based on best‐practice techniques of governance in a diverse non‐hierarchical environment, such as the international development community. This form of co‐operation cannot overcome global economic and political asymmetries, but it can be effective in several respects. In particular, the Initiative led to increased funding for AfT and kick‐started a range of initiatives and technical advances; while the monitoring process has evolved significantly to give voice to new actors and issues. Although the future of the AfT Initiative is uncertain, its achievements merit careful consideration.
The intensification of the financial and economic crisis in Europe has added a new impetus into the debate over the possibilities for securing supranational fiscal integration within the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Since the literature on the European Union's (EU) response to the crisis is dominated by the study of intergovernmental politics, this article considers the previously neglected role of the Commission. A framing analysis of the Commission's crisis discourse is operationalised here, which is supplemented by interviews with senior officials located in DG ECFIN during key phases of the crisis. It is found that a supranational reform agenda was never internalised by the Commission. Instead the Commission acted strategically by framing the crisis around intergovernmental fiscal discipline. These findings suggest that, in line with the 'new intergovernmentalist' thesis, supranational institutions themselves may not be as 'hard-wired' towards supranationalism as is often assumed.
The debate on the Sustainable Development Goals framework offered a set piece for civil society organizations/CSOs to challenge institutions such as the EU. This article maps and analyzes how the EU's framing of trade policy in the SDGs related to that of European CSOs. The process is understood in terms of the interaction of different forms of ideational power. Key lines of contestation emerged over the question of constraining market forces. The lead EU institutions adopted some of the CSO's moral economy discourse but used various techniques to insulate trade policy from interventionist thought. They allocated a new range of responsibilities to developing countries, ignored numerous political issues and rejected calls for more regulatory global governance from CSOs and the European Parliament. To do so they were able to deploy a range of ideational and institutional powers. However, EU trade policy remains full of contradictions and potential 'rhetoric traps'.
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