This book focuses on the European Union as an important actor in international relations and international political economy. The EU negotiates international economic agreements, represents Europe in international organizations, and is a major trading bloc and currency area. To what extent and under what conditions the EU can use its considerable economic power to assert its interests in the international arena is a relevant question for students, researchers and practitioners alike. To explore this question, the textbook introduces the concept of “actorness” and presents an overview of the actorness debate and theories used to explain actorness. In addition, it includes three empirical chapters on trade, finance and climate policy that apply various concepts and theories to study European actorness in the respective policy areas.

Is the European Union a unified actor in world politics? The world’s leading economic power is still struggling to find its role in shaping and maintaining global peace, free trade and commerce. How successful is the EU ́s Common Foreign and Security Policy and its institutions really?

This important collection, edited by Jenő Czuczai and Frederik Naert, covers the key areas of EU external relations law and broader institutional dimensions and principles of Union law. It does so under five headings - institutional dimensions; principles of Union law and legal theory; international law aspects; specific EU external policies (the Common Foreign and Security Policy; the Common Commercial Policy; and Justice and Home Affairs); and EU international agreements. Well-established academics and experienced practitioners from the different EU institutions offer a unique insight into EU practice and academic analysis of the most pertinent legal issues of the post-Lisbon legal environment of the EU, in particular in the external relations area. The contributors are: Paul Berman, Michael Bishop, Thérèse Blanchet, Sonja Boelaert, Marise Cremona, Jenő Czuczai, Álvaro de Elera, Bart Driessen, Frank Hoffmeister, Pieter-Jan Kuijper, Hubert Legal, Gilles Marhic, Stephan Marquardt, Frederik Naert, Esa Paasivirta, Ricardo Passos, Ingolf Pernice, Allan Rosas, Ivan Smyth, Christiaan Timmermans, and Dirk Wouters.

First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This timely book investigates the EU’s multi-faceted development as a global actor, unpacking its legal mission to be a ‘good’ actor as well as exploring the complexities of fulfilling this objective. It elicits critical reflections on the question of ‘goodness’ in EU external relations from descriptive, analytical and normative perspectives, and examines which metrics of actorness are useful in tackling this subject.

Examines how the EU is perceived in the US; the Middle East; Russia; China; India; Brazil; South Africa; the World Bank; WTO; UN; Al Jazeera and International NGOs and explores the impact of these perceptions for the global role of the EU.

This timely book investigates the EU's multi-faceted development as a global actor, unpacking its legal mission to be a 'good' actor as well as exploring the complexities of fulfilling this objective. It elicits critical reflections on the question of 'goodness' in EU external relations from descriptive, analytical and normative perspectives, and examines which metrics of actorness are useful in tackling this subject. Featuring contributions from more than 20 leading EU scholars and emerging voices, the book develops four themes through which it advances a research agenda for the study of the EU as a good global actor. The book begins by unpacking the complexities of the EU as a global trade actor, before discussing 'good' trade governance and a deeper trade agenda, the issue of data governance in digital trade and in other regulatory frameworks, and finally the institutional dimension of EU actorness. Understanding the EU as a Good Global Actor will be a crucial read for scholars and students in EU law and politics, particularly those with an interest in EU governance, trade and external relations. It will also prove useful for policy makers both within and outside the EU.