Normative Power Europe as an Analytical Framework for Examining the EU’s Normativity

Vatsov, Mihail

doi:10.1007/978-94-6265-583-6_2

Mihail Vatsov⁷

Part of the book series: Global Europe: Legal and Policy Issues of the EU’s External Action ((GELPIEEA,volume 3))

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Abstract

This chapter presents the analytical framework of the book. It centres around a legally contextualised understanding of the Normative Power Europe (NPE) concept featuring three interrelated elements that are constantly resurfacing in the NPE literature with authors failing to reach a broad agreement on their contents and relevance. These elements are referred to in this book as (1) universality, (2) use of instruments and (3) legitimacy. The universality element examines the level of international acceptance of the stated aims of the EU conduct. The use of instruments element examines the EU’s participation limitations in relevant international institutions and the means (persuasion as opposed to coercion) through which it acts. The legitimacy element examines the substance of the EU conduct in terms of legality, protection of common or self-interests and coherence and consistency. Before delving into these elements, a brief comment is made on the importance of the EU’s distinctiveness to the NPE concept.

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Notes

1.
Duchêne 1972.
2.
See generally Bull 1982; Wagner 2006.
3.
Manners 2002.
4.
Aggestam 2008. Also see Gegout 2016.
5.
Damro 2012a, 2015.
6.
Meunier and Nicolaïdis 2006.
7.
Kissack 2009b.
8.
Bull 1982, p. 151.
9.
An isolated application of NPE in fisheries governance already exists in the literature but it has a very limited scope and does not develop the NPE framework as such. Miller et al. 2014.
10.
E.g. Diez 2005; Savorskaya 2015.
11.
Manners 2002, p. 240.
12.
Ibid., 252.
13.
Ibid.
14.
See Zielonka 2011.
15.
On the debate of Member States’ sovereignty in the EU context and its external action, see Eckes and Wessel 2018.
16.
Ibid.
17.
Zielonka 2011.
18.
Diez 2005, p. 614; Sjursen 2006, p. 240.
19.
Ibid., p. 242.
20.
Treaty on European Union (Consolidated Version), opened for signature 7 February 1992, entered into force 1 November 1993, TEU 2016 OJ C202/13, Article 6.
21.
ECJ, Opinion 2/94 Accession by the Community to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Opinion, 28 March 1996, EU:C:1996:140.
22.
Protocol No. 14 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, amending the control system of the Convention, opened for signature 13 May 2004 CETS No 194, entered into force 1 June 2010.
23.
Council of Europe 2013.
24.
ECJ, Opinion 2/13 Accession of the European Union to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Opinion, 18 December 2014, EU:C:2014:2454.
25.
Manners 2008, pp. 46, 60.
26.
Timmermann 2011.
27.
Manners 2008, p. 57; Kagan 2003; Eriksen 2006; Prichard 2013; Staeger 2016.
28.
Timmermann 2011, p. 71.
29.
Guyer 1998, xxxv.
30.
Ibid. In the context of this book, consent is understood as the consent under international law of the other international actors with which the EU interacts—States and international organisations.
31.
Habermas 1990, p. 65.
32.
Forsberg 2011, p. 1187.
33.
Timmermann 2011, p. 113.
34.
Manners 2011, p. 235. See also Foot 2000, p. 9.
35.
Manners 2011, p. 235.
36.
Ibid.
37.
Rose 1991, p. 3; Berkes 1994, p. 51.
38.
McWhinnie 2009; Al-Fattal 2009.
39.
Ibid., 547.
40.
See Eriksen 2006, p. 253; Damro 2012a, p. 684.
41.
E.g. Meunier and Nicolaïdis 2006, pp. 920–921; Savorskaya 2015, p. 69.
42.
Ibid.; Manners 2009, p. 11.
43.
Diez 2005, p. 616; Diez and Manners 2007, p. 176.
44.
de Zutter 2010, p. 1114.
45.
Manners 2011. See also Foot 2000, p. 9.
46.
See Eriksen 2006, pp. 255–256.
47.
Sjursen 2006, p. 239; UN Secretary-General 1997.
48.
Hufbauer and Oegg 2000, p. 12.
49.
Aggestam 2008, p. 9.
50.
Discussed e.g. in Diez 2005, pp. 623–624.
51.
Manners 2006, p. 183.
52.
Ibid., pp. 194–195.
53.
Sjursen 2006, p. 239.
54.
Smith 2003, p. 22.
55.
Damro 2012a, p. 691.
56.
Ibid.
57.
Meunier and Nicolaïdis 2006, p. 920.
58.
Savorskaya 2015, p. 69.
59.
Diez 2005, p. 617.
60.
Diez and Manners 2007, pp. 177–179.
61.
E.g. Franck 1990; Hurd 1999; Beetham and Lord 1998.
62.
Harpaz 2007, p. 97.
63.
Bickerton 2011, p. 25.
64.
Ibid.; Harpaz 2007, p. 96.
65.
Meunier and Nicolaïdis 2006, p. 922.
66.
Bickerton 2011.
67.
Weber 1978, p. 213; Manners 2008, p. 46; Nye 2004; Dandashly 2012, p. 425; Hurd 1999, p. 387; Harpaz 2007, p. 97; Haukkala 2011, p. 52.
68.
Manners 2011, pp. 233–234.
69.
Sjursen 2006, p. 245.
70.
Manners 2011, pp. 233–235.
71.
Sjursen 2006, pp. 244–248.
72.
See the discussions in Manners 2011, pp. 242–243; Martin-Mazé 2015.
73.
Ibid.; Diez 2005, 622; Manners 2011, p. 242.
74.
Ibid., Martin-Mazé 2015, 1288; de Zutter 2010, p. 1109.
75.
Sjursen 2006, p. 239.
76.
Manners 2011, 243; Martin-Mazé 2015.
77.
Bickerton 2011, 87. See also Laïdi 2008, 86.
78.
Kissack 2009a.
79.
Striking such a balance has been considered in Bossuyt et al. 2017, paras 43 and 57.
80.
Aggestam 2008, 9.
81.
Martin-Mazé 2015, p. 1288.
82.
Diez and Pace 2011, p. 224; Langan 2012, p. 244.
83.
Gebhard 2017, p. 108.
84.
Ibid., 107–108. See also Wakefield 2016, p. 128.
85.
Coherence—3 times and consistency—19 times (the Treaties including Protocols, Annexes and Declarations). The Spanish, French, Italian and German versions only use ‘coherencia’, ‘cohérence’, ‘coerenza’, ‘kohärenz’.
86.
Gebhard 2017, p. 108.
87.
For different divisions, see ibid.; Cremona 2012, p. 58; Nuttall 2005.
88.
The understanding of coherence and consistency here follows the one suggested by Manners 2011, pp. 233–234.
89.
Cremona 2012, p. 34.
90.
Ibid. Achieving such coherence has been seen as a challenge by the Commission in European Commission 2006, p. 6.
91.
Franck 1990, p. 163.
92.
Ibid., pp. 142, 180; Damro 2012b, p. 58.
93.
Whitman 2011, p. 16; Skolimowska 2015, p. 120.
94.
European Commission 2006, p. 6.

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Mihail Vatsov

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Vatsov, M. (2023). Normative Power Europe as an Analytical Framework for Examining the EU’s Normativity. In: Fishing Power Europe. Global Europe: Legal and Policy Issues of the EU’s External Action, vol 3. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-583-6_2

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-583-6_2
Published: 01 January 2023
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