EU Foreign Policy and Norm Contestation in an Eroding Western and Intra-EU Liberal Order

Abstract

The idea of the European Union being increasingly contested, whether globally or at home, is a frequently reiterated notion. It is believed that such challenges to the European integration stem from a number of diverse but interlinked global and intra-EU crises that, combined, amount to the current 'perfect storm' affecting the EU and its foreign, security and defence policy. We will explore here how the EU is being put to the test in terms of the norms and fundamental values which guides its foreign policy. It is an important issue within the broader debates of the European crises, as such norm contestation may have a deeper structural and longer-term effect on the EU's external action and its 'resilience' as an international actor.We employ insights from the norm contestation literature to scrutinize a number of the most important current challenges articulated against EU foreign policy norms in recent years, whether at the global, 'glocal' or intra-EU level.The idea that the European Union is being increasingly contested, whether globally or at home, is a notion frequently expressed by high-level EU representatives as well as in contemporary academia. For example, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, stated in a letter to European leaders that to his mind "[t]he challenges currently facing the European Union are more dangerous than ever before in the time since the signature of the Treaty of Rome"

Politicisation of the European Foreign, security, and defence cooperation: the case of the EU’s Russian sanctions

“…While the CFSP has always been contested and politicised to a degree, the dynamic of the process has shown some important novelties in the last two decades, during which we witnessed the erosion of the Western-led liberal world order, the Eurozone and refugee crises, Brexit, the Trump election and rise of populism (Cadier and Lequesne 2020). In this context, EUFP is increasingly being contested (especially at the intra-EU level) by new actors that form novel alliances and contest even deeply internalised foreign policy norms (Johansson-Nogués et al 2020).…”

“…These dynamics have caught the attention of EU practitioners, who, in the opening paragraph of the EU's Global Strategy, stress that the EU is being increasingly questioned (EUGS 2016). EU researchers, who have done individual studies (Koenig 2016, Costa 2019, Hegemann and Schneckener 2019, edited volumes (Góra et al 2019, Johansson-Nogués et al 2020, and special issues (Petri et al 2020, Hackenesch et al 2021 to study the politicisation of various aspects of EUFP, also point to the increased importance of the process of politicisation.…”

The EU, migration and contestation: the UN Global Compact for migration, from consensus to dissensus

“…Third, when national capitals intrude at the diplomatic level (i.e. communities of practices), it may have profound consequences for EU foreign policy norms and values (Johansson-Nogués, Vlaskamp, & Barbé, 2020). Diplomats usually soften the noise coming from their capitals for the sake of reaching a compromise or mutual trust.…”