Europe and the Globe - Two Perspectives • Sovereigntist Perspective Globally resilient framework – still influential upon the EU • Governance Perspective Alternative perspective – the EU a key source
Sovereigntist Perspective (inside the EU) ‘ compendious legal external sovereignty towards rest of • the world’ (MacCormick ) . The same quantum of sovereignty BUT new internal distribution of that sovereignty • • AND new allocation of external sovereign title on the basis of new internal distribution
Four approaches to sovereignty within the EU • Aggregative ( still state-centred ) • Consolidated ( and elevated to the supranational level ) • Compound ( split between state and supranational levels ) • Redundant ( ‘splitting of atom’ means sovereign no longer ) Contest maps onto different insider views of EU (internal and external) competence over ‘high’ and ‘low’ politics
EU sovereignty viewed from the outside • Tendency to view the EU as a ‘compound’ entity in sovereign terms BUT • Objective difficulties - must confront substantive and institutional complexity and associated uncertainty and controversy (e.g. mixed agreements, variable ‘membership’ of international organisations) • Attitudinal unease – the EU viewed as having the influence of a single large player without the cross-sectoral cohesion or clear lines of accountability
Re-imagining the World – the Governance approach • ‘Environmental’ or ‘milieu’ goals over ‘possession’ goals • Collective over unilateral action • Stably institutionalized systems of regulation over discrete interventions
Consequences of absence of ‘normal’ sovereignty conditions • Fewer ‘hard’ material possessions to defend • No existential threat to basic unit of political community • Pedigree of collective negotiation • Lack of security infrastructure to back unilateral action • Less concerned about fettering its discretion through long- term institutional commitment
Modalities of Governance Approach • Content – pursuit of shared transnational and global public goods • Method – multilateral and long-term. Expresses core political values (e.g. democracy and rule of law) as well as preferred processes • Form - self-cloning - ‘enmeshment’ as paradigmatic
Clash of two Imaginaries – Some Questions • Is the EU global catalyst for new ‘governance’ approach, or just surfing the trend? • To the extent that it is the prime mover, tension between unilateral assumption and multilateral vision. (Europe as Empire, Europe as Cosmopolis?) • How have the governance and sovereigntist views been reconciled? • How are they likely to be reconciled and disseminated in the future, given pressure to emphasize both approaches?
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