Anna Herranz-Surrallés

Which rules shape EU external governance? Patterns of rule selection in foreign and security policies

This article addresses a particular aspect of EU external governance: rule selection. Drawing on institutionalist and power-based explanations we put forward an account for the choice of the specific rules that guide policy convergence between the EU and third countries. The proposed analytical framework broadens the scope of the studies examining the externalization of EU rules beyond its borders, in that we claim that the EU can promote policy convergence using rules other than the EUs. More specifically, the EU also promotes policy convergence on the basis of international and bilaterally developed rules. These analytical claims for explaining rule selection are checked against empirical data. We compare policy convergence between the EU and four neighbouring countries (Morocco, Ukraine, Georgia, and Russia) in three subfields within foreign and security policy: foreign policy dialogue, control of export of dual-use goods in the context of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and crisis management.

The party politics of legislative‒executive relations in security and defence policy

Abstract The move from territorial defence to ‘wars of choice’ has influenced the domestic politics of military interventions. This paper examines the extent to which both the substance and the procedure of military interventions are contested among political parties. Regarding the substance, our analysis of Chapel Hill Expert Survey data demonstrates that across European states political parties on the right are more supportive of military missions than those on the left. On the decision-making procedures, our case studies of Germany, France, Spain and the United Kingdom show that political parties on the left tend to favour strong parliamentary control whereas those on the right tend to prefer an unconstrained executive, although with differences across countries. These findings challenge the view that ‘politics stops at the water’s edge’ and contribute to a better understanding of how political parties and parliaments influence military interventions.

The EU’s multilevel parliamentary (battle)field: Inter-parliamentary cooperation and conflict in the area of foreign and security policy

The Treaty of Lisbon has been dubbed ‘the Treaty of Parliaments’, as it upgraded the position of both the European Parliament and of national parliaments within the institutional system of the EU. However, the implementation of the new Treaty also brought to the surface the uneasy relationship between the European and national parliamentary spheres in a number of domains. Drawing on the notion of ‘parliamentary field’, this article accounts for this growing divide by highlighting the competitive dynamics that may emerge from a mismatch between formal constitutional authority and the actual parliamentary capital that parliaments enjoy. The article examines this proposition within the domain of foreign and security policy, where the process of establishing a new inter-parliamentary mechanism for scrutinising policy has placed the European Parliament and the national parliaments visibly at odds.

An EU’s Emerging Energy Diplomacy? Discursive Shifts, Enduring Practices

ABSTRACT The European Unions (EU) external energy policy has been steadily taking shape since the mid-2000s. EU authorities appear to have even taken on functions that could be classified as ‘energy diplomacy’, i.e., the use of foreign policy means to secure access to foreign energy supplies. With the aim of gauging and accounting for these developments, this article undertakes a double analytical move, one conceptual and one theoretical. Conceptually, it distinguishes between energy governance and energy diplomacy as tools for better comprehending the type and scope of policy change. Theoretically, it draws on discursive institutionalism to examine how and why policies change (or endure) by looking at the role of ideas in two dimensions of social action that are not often analysed side by side: policy discourses and policy practices. The article illustrates the practical relevance of this distinction through empirically examining the EUs promotion of diversification of natural gas supplies.

Energy diplomacy under scrutiny: parliamentary control of intergovernmental agreements with third‐country suppliers

Abstract Research on legislative‒executive relations in foreign affairs has generally assumed that parliaments are more active in ‘intermestic’ affairs than in traditional foreign policy issues. This paper revisits this assumption by examining whether parliaments in European countries scrutinise crucial decisions on a typical intermestic domain: external energy policy and, more specifically, intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) on energy. Contrary to the expectation, the study finds high variation in the level of parliamentary scrutiny across and within countries. To account for this variation, the paper focuses on the role of issue framing, particularly the impact of securitising and/or depoliticising moves by members of parliament and government. The paper argues that, in contrast to traditional foreign policy matters, securitisation attempts in areas with a strong economic component are likely to increase politicisation and hence also parliamentary engagement. Conversely, parliamentary disengagement is likely to come from the opposite dynamics: successful depoliticisation of governmental responsibilities.

Thinking Energy Outside the Frame? : Reframing and Misframing Dynamics in Euro-Mediterranean Energy Relations

Abstract The EU’s initial reaction to the Arab uprisings in the field of energy cooperation was yet another proposal for creating an integrated Euro-Mediterranean energy market, despite the moot success of previous efforts. This paper investigates the policy frame underpinning the EU’s persistent focus on market-regulatory harmonization since the late 1990s and enquires into whether it has experienced any change in the post-uprising context. While the paper finds an enduring dominance of the market-liberal frame, it also identifies signs of its erosion through processes of reframing and misframing, affecting also the EU’s practical engagement with the region.

An Upstream Battle: The EU and the Reform of the Energy Charter Treaty

The changes undergoing global energy markets and the structure of the world economy over the past decade have placed the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), so far the most widespread international regime on energy trade and investments, in a difficult situation. The withdrawal of Russia in 2009 led the ECT to a standstill, obliging the institution to reassess its future. This chapter enquires into how the EU, the main driving force behind the creation of the ECT, has dealt with this growingly unpropitious context. It finds that, quite paradoxically, the EU has chosen the path of entrenchment over accommodation. The chapter argues that both normative factors (inertia of ingrained policy philosophies and practices) and cognitive (perception of regional ascendancy) have inhibited the EU’s disposition to accommodate.

Energy Cooperation: the leading light of the revised European Neighbourhood Policy? : The limits of the EU's functionalist extension

Tracing the evolution of energy cooperation in the context of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), this chapter argues that the 2011 ENP review signifies a new step in line with the previous additive and dialectic pattern of change. On the one hand, after the attempts at decentred and lighter-weighted multilateral energy cooperation of the late 2000s, the revised ENP placed the emphasis back on instruments to promote EU-centred regulatory harmonisation (here characterised as energy governance). On the other hand, the EU has put in place new instruments of energy diplomacy directly aimed at increasing its security of supplies. The chapter examines this double development, contrasting different explanations for why (and to what effect) the EU and neighbouring countries have engaged in those initiatives.