EU Effectiveness and Unity in Multilateral Negotiations: More than the Sum of its Parts? (The European Union in International Affairs)

This book analyses the relationship between EU unity and its effectiveness in multilateral negotiations on food standards, climate change and public health challenging the assumption that more unity will automatically lead to increased negotiating power. Based on earlier work on EU actorness and coherence, it develops a new model for analysing EU unity and explores the competence of the EU to operate in multilateral negotiations, the degree of preference homogeneity among the EU member states and the extent to which those involved are socialised into working on the basis of a single European voice. Based on rich empirical case studies, academic and policy relevant conclusions are made on the added value of increased cooperation between states in multilateral negotiations, and conditions influencing the EU's effectiveness in these negotiations.