The European Union and Global Governance

Abstract

The European Union (EU) faces a new geopolitical situation. The Iraq war and its aftermath plus the failure of the Cancun WTO meeting have triggered a new debate on global governance and international law. Kofi Annnan has warned of the dangers of weakening the authority of the UN and other multilateral institutions. Romano Prodi has openly questioned whether the current multilateral system is up to the challenges facing the world. At the same time, the current US administration has openly scorned the multilateral system in pursuit of its one-dimensional security policy – the war on terrorism – although there are some indications that this approach may be changing as a result of the problems it faces in Iraq. In contrast, the European security strategy paper, presented by Javier Solana to the European Council in December 2003, highlighted the importance of the EU working to strengthen the institutions of global governance. It implicitly called for a more active and effective EU role on the world stage. This paper will assess the prospects for the EU in meetings its ambitious goals in regard to global governance.