WP6 is coordinated by Prof. J. Zetlin.

The international financial system has just faced its most serious crisis since the depression and the multilateral trading system is suffering serious collateral damage from it. Over the past decades, global integration has increasingly blurred the lines between domestic policy vis-à-vis the economy (monetary policy, market regulation, competition policy, etc.) and international or external policy (for example exchange rate and trade policy). Formerly domestic responsibilities have been partially displaced into transnational regulatory networks and enhanced international regimes. At the same time, the domestic policies and norms of powerful states and regional organizations have increasingly been diffused throughout the global economy; for example, environmental standards of the EU or other major economic players have been adopted de facto far afield without any legal obligation or overt coercion.

Managing this increasing interpenetration of the formerly domestic and international spheres has been a key challenge for political institutions at different levels of aggregation. Within Europe different forms of experimentalist governance, based on recursive processes of framework rule making and revision through networked deliberation among European and national actors have provided pragmatic solutions to common policy problems. Examples of these include networked agencies, councils of regulators, and the Open Method of Coordination. Whether these tools can be applied externally is a question yet to be answered. The rise of multi-polarity has only exacerbated this challenge. Accordingly, GR:EEN work package 6 (WP6) has three objectives:

1. How can, the EU in this new setting, ensure that its positions are adequately represented in international/global fora in the face of the emergence of new key players such as India, China, Brazil?
2. How can effective forms of transnational governance be established that avoid or at least minimize the shortcomings of past multilateral arrangements?
3. How can the legitimacy of these new forms of governance be enhanced, to ensure both their contribution to a widely defined public interest and their de facto viability through citizen support?

As is true for the GREEN project as a whole, WP6 sees a wider application of EU experimental governance mechanisms holding key potential to provide answers to these questions. At the same time, what will need to be specified is the degree to which for example instruments applied to build and sustain the single European market in the past can be and should be used as, and are likely to be accepted as, templates for deeper economic integration beyond Europe.

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