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At the beginning of the 1990s, the then Belgian Foreign Minister Mark Eyskens coined the dictum of Europe as an economic giant, a political dwarf and a military worm. Three decades later, the European Union must be understood as a global political heavyweight - at least in terms of trade and development policy. According to its own self-understanding, the EU pursues a value-oriented foreign policy. European norms and values should be spread around the world, especially in the EU's immediate neighbourhood. But how successful is the EU as a normative power? Can any specific European core norms be defined at all? To answert hese questions, the course looks first at the theoretical concept "Normative Power Europe" by Ian Manners. Afterwards, the EU's institutional patterns and modes of governance are examined by focusing on selected values, such as peace, liberty, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. It then discusses the EU's relations with third countries, namely the enlargement policy, the European Neighbourhood Policy, the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU trade policy and the European development policy. The aim of the course is to identify both the specific normative framework for each policy field and the actual outcome of these policies. |
