Is the EU a normative power with the ability to define 'normal' in a globalised world?

Analysis by Ian Manners of principles of solidarity, equality and sustainable peace

To what extent is the European Union (EU) a normative power with the ability to define what passes for ‘normal’ in a globalised world? The recently published chapter by DIIS Senior Researcher, Ian Manners, looks at just three areas of social preferences, each with a case study in the practice of normative power in order to try to address this question. The cases of EU development aid, EU promotion of core labour standards (CLS), and EU crisis management are the focus of this chapter in Zaki Laïdi (ed.) book

EU Foreign Policy in a Globalized World: Normative power and social preferences (Routledge, 2008).

The chapter looks first at European preferences for economic solidarity through an examination of the EU’s normative principle of solidarity in development policy. Second, the chapter turns to European preferences for social solidarity by analysing the EU’s normative principle of equality in the promotion of core labour standards. Third, European preferences for sustainable peace and the role of the EU crisis management operations are looked at. The chapter concludes that divergences of social preferences, discrepancies over competence, and questions of promotion and implementation in all three case studies suggest that the EU is a committed yet troubled normative power in the globalised world.

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