Coordinated by Prof. M. Telo, GR:EEN’s second work package (WP2) focusses on the European Union (EU) in a Multipolar World. It aims at consolidating the understanding of the EU’s external action; both from an internal institutional, as from an external foreign policy point of view.

WP2’s scientific goal is the enhancement of the research community focussed on the external action of the EU. Embedding it in a broader, global and multidisciplinary epistemic community will allow for further aggregate conceptual and empirical expertise on international cooperation and global governance.

WP2 will assess the abundant literature on the EU’s unprecedented power, whilst avoiding euro-centric or teleological understandings. Research is to be fostered through a dialogue between neo-institutionalist, experimentalist governance, and transnational network theories. Methodologically: qualitative, quantitative and comparative studies are to be confronted with an eye on assessing both the EU’s legitimacy and efficiency in a multipolar order.

Besides answering a scientific need for more substantiated empirical knowledge on a rapidly evolving global order, and contributing to a series of well-established literatures analysing the EU, WP2 will seek to fulfil a broader societal role. By providing research/evidence-based policy recommendations, it aspires to contribute towards an improvement in European policymaking. Policy dialogue, through recurring exchange platforms called “Case Study Integrity Fora” (CSIF), will be an integral part of the research and dissemination process.

WP2 is coordinated by the Institut d’Etudes Européennes at the Université libre de Bruxelles (IEE-ULB), the research tradition of which is characterized by its inclusive and interdisciplinary nature. Beside Pr. Mario TELO’, the local senior coordinating scientist, Pr. Jean-Frédéric MORIN, Pr. Maria-Joao RODRIGUES and Dr. Amandine BLED coordinate three sub-work packages:

• The EU: a legitimate and efficient institutionalized global actor in the making
• The EU a civilian power in the making: the comparative dimension
• The EU as laboratory for a deepening multilateralism

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