Thomas Ramopoulos

The EU in the World of International Organizations: Diplomatic Aspirations, Legal Hurdles and Political Realities

The Lisbon Treaty emphasizes the European Union’s (EU) commitment to multilateralism. A key part of this is the EU’s engagement with and participation in international organizations (IOs). While the EU has clear ambitions to take part and play a leading role in IOs, it faces significant obstacles in making this a reality. This paper begins by outlining the status the EU currently enjoys in IOs, ranging from full member to observer or no status at all. It then examines some of the legal and political issues the EU faces when seeking to join or upgrade its status in an IO. Issues such as representation in areas of shared competence and the difficulties arising from parallel membership in an IO are discussed. It then examines how the EU goes about choosing which IOs to seek closer co-operation with, discussing its efforts to improve its representation in three IOs: the Arctic Council, the International Maritime Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency. It is submitted that the EU’s involvement in IOs is as much a legal issue as it is a political and diplomatic one. Upgrading the EU’s status in IOs requires more than legal changes; it requires careful diplomacy to ensure that the EU’s international status lives up to its external aspirations.

The European Union: A Federation in All but Name

The question of unification of laws in federal systems is an inherently complex question. The difficulties in the effort to examine developments within federal entities are only magnified when the EU becomes the entity under investigation. The EU is a constantly evolving political organism with a declared goal to bring together the states and peoples of Europe. We focus on two-levels in the EU’s structure of governance: EU institutions and national governments. The distribution of competences between these two levels is based on the principles of conferral, subsidiarity, proportionality and pre-emption, whereas the principle of primacy of EU law applies in cases of conflict between central and national laws. Central EU authorities enjoy a variety of legal and political instruments with which they steer the process of legal unification and harmonization. This legal construct has proven highly successful and functional primarily due to the integrative role of the Court of Justice. However, the significance of not strictly legal factors in the process of legal harmonization should not be underrated. In particular, as this chapter explains, non-state actors within the EU, dense relations and cooperation among legal practitioners and scholars, and the constantly deepening interaction among Europeans are important elements in this process.