Kur slypi Europos galia? Normatyviniai, instituciniai ir ekonominiai šaltiniai ES užsienio politikoje

LTMonografijoje nagrinėjama Europos Sąjungos užsienio politikos koherentiškumo ir legitimumo problema. Tiek teoriniame, tiek ir politikos formavimo ir įgyvendinimo praktiniame lygmenyje iškyla klausimas, kaip mes suvokiame ir interpretuojame Europos Sąjungos, kaip tarptautinio veikėjo, galimybes. Kokius šaltinius, resursus europiečiai naudoja siekdami paveikti kitus tarptautinius veikėjus bei tarptautinę erdvę? Kuo yra grindžiama Europos Sąjungos užsienio politika? Kodėl nuolat iškyla koherentiškumo ir legitimumo probleminiai klausimai, kalbant apie ES užsienio politiką ir analizuojant jos įgyvendinimo perspektyvą? Monografijoje siekiama ištirti ir analizuoti Europos Sąjungos kuriamos kompleksinės užsienio politikos instrumentus ir institucijas, plėtojant santykius su trečiosiomis šalimis bei po Lisabonos sutarties įgyvendinimo susiklosčiusią politinę situaciją. [VDU talpykla]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Normatyvinė galia; Tarptautiniai santykiai; Užsienio politika; Lyderystė; Kaimynystės politika; European Union; Normative power; International relations; Foreign policy; Leadership; Neighborhood policy; Europos Sąjunga (European Union).

EN[...] The monograph researches the problem of the coherence and legitimacy of the European Union‘s foreign policy. In theoretical, as much as in practical level of the formation and implementation of politics, a question of how one comprehends and interprets the potential of the EU as an international actor is raised. What kind of sources and resources do the Europeans employ in order to influence and affect other international players and international arena? What is the EU‘s foreign policy based on? Why do the questions of the EU‘s coherence and legitimacy consistently appear when analyzing the perspective of its implementation? How is the European Union planning to solve these issues, and what effect did the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty have when dealing with these problems? This monograph seeks to research and analyze the instruments and institutions of the EU‘s complex foreign policy when developing relations with third countries. Foreign policy is perceived in a broad sence, demonstrating that the EU‘s goal is to execute complex integrated policy, which includes normative, institutional and economic sources and resources in the relations with external countries. Hence, paradoxically, the common EU‘s foreign and security policy is not the main goal of the study. In this way also demonstrating that the expression and influence of the EU in the international processes is much bigger when employing other instruments than CFSP. Refering to a case study – European neighbourhood policy - the research examines if and how, while being one of the global trade powers, the EU seeks to integrate and if it is capable of doing so, when aiming to achieve different foreign policy goals. The monograph also explores the problematic aspects of the Lisbon Treaty in order to reveal the internal relations of the EU‘s institutional body when creating coherence in the EU‘s international politics. [...].The monograph consists of three structural parts. The first part – Academic debates about Europe‘s role in international politics – aims to review and analyse alternative theoretical directions, differently explaining the role of the EU, as an international agent in the world‘s politics. This part also researches the forms of power that are inherent to the European Union‘s international role in the theoretical context. This chapter aims to answer the question if the EU‘s international role is mostly based on ideas or material? What is the ground for the perspective EU‘s normative power idea and why is it being criticised? Moreover, the social role theory for the EU‘s role‘s analysis is also applied, and will be elaborated in the following parts of the monograph. In the second part – Projecting power and coherence in European foreign policy: institutional perspective – a detailed analysis of empirical research, based on a large interview material and documents‘ analysis is conducted. The objective of this part is to clear up the fog covering the inter-institutional functioning of the EU, and so demonstrating the need for the institutional reconstruction of the EU‘s external policies shaping and implementation, and how this transformation, in the view of the respondents, can strengthen the opportunities for the EU‘s international role. This part of the monograph is based on a thesis that former institutional competition between the Council and Commission is now shifting to the growing competition between the European Parliament and the Council, now determined by the rising powers and competencies of the European Parliament in the increasingly simetric legislature in the EU‘s bicameral political system.In the third part – European Union‘s role and foreign policy implementation in the neighbourhood: ENP case study – the focus falls on the implementation process. In this part, while consistently applying theoretical model of social role theory, intentional, interactive and institutional aspects are highlighted, while at the same time researching how and why the European Union implements foreign politics in the neighbouring regions. How does the European neighbourhood reflect normative, institutional and economic objectives of the European Union? This, the third part of the monograph, is based on the thesis that the European Union is not only aiming to transfer or export the norms, rules and standards based on the EU‘s acquis communautaire legal basis, but also institutional interaction and its forms, that are specific to the internal system of the EU, to its neighbourhood. These objectives are being implemented through the EU‘s economic instruments, such as treaty of Association and DCFTA. Nonetheless, as the results of the policy demonstrate, the impact on the ENP partner countries‘ political systems is limited and not diverse, as it is more dependable on the change of political players and governments in partner countries, and not on the strategy of the EU. In this case, slight socio-political changes in the ENP countries appear to be more like a spiral than consistent positive transformational trajectory, and the changes have more often marked camouflage transformation, while real and tangible institutional change is not taking place. Nevertheless, economic approach did provide significant results, i.e. signing of the Association treaty and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area agreement, which had a tangible impact on the expansion of trade among the EU and its neighbouring countries. [...]. [From the publication]

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