THE EU AND SUB‐REGIONAL MULTILATERALISM
Jordi Vaquer i Fánes
Director of the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB)
EU4Seas Project Coordinator
This paper was first presented at the EU4Seas dissemination event "Is the EU a Multilateral Actor in its Neighbourhood?", organized by IAI, EPC and Paralleli in Turin, 6‐7 June 2011
The European Union is dealing simultaneously with the effects of an economic crisis that endangers some of its main achievements in five decades of integration (the euro, solidarity, internal market) and worrying signs of the erosion of democracy in its member states (rise of populist parties, corruption, weakening of the division of powers, divorce between politicians and societies). As the new institutions created by the painfully approved Lisbon Treaty struggle to deliver on the promise of a more unified external presence, the current troubles of the EU accelerate its loss of weight in an international context where non‐Western powers emerge with strength on the global scene, demanding a larger stake in global governance.
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