Is Europe about to rise as a full political actor on the world stage? Conventional wisdom had it that European integration in foreign policy, security and defence was unlikely to amount to much very quickly. More recently, however, a diverse group of scholars has argued that pan-European political actorhood had gained considerable substance. Surveying the recent literature, pertinent related writings and relevant primary materials on the matter, this article identifies and systematizes the many different factors affecting European high-politics actorhood in the early 21st century. A fully grown international actor Europe, it finds, remains a longer-term project rather than an imminent prospect. Copyright (c) 2009 The Author(s). Journal compilation (c) 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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What explains the creation of the EU corona recovery fund? Why did the Union agree on a large-scale financial response to the corona pandemic, despite member states' very different immediate reactions to the crisis and their opposing attitudes towards common debt? This article argues for the decisiveness of France and Germany's role within the Union and their tight bilateral political cooperation. The 'embedded bilateralism' approach to European integration and EU politics explains how and why France and Germany, starting from different poles, came together and established joint positions, paving the way for an overall European compromise. Focusing on these two countries' particular leadership role advances the theoretical debate about the actors most crucial for driving European integration, especially in times of severe crisis.

Parapublic underpinnings of international relations are cross-border interactions that belong neither to the public world of states nor to the private world of societies. They underpin relations among specific states and construct social purpose in the international realm. Focusing on Franco-German parapublic underpinnings reveals a particular and neglected kind of `Europeanization'. Such parapublic activity includes massive state-financed youth exchanges, some two thousand municipal partnerships, and a host of institutes and associations. In their entirety, these parapublic interactions have developed into structural components of the European polity. Rather than directly affecting domestic political affairs, this kind of Europeanization connects French and Germans in a certain way. It makes Europeans more European, but without making them less national. This article contributes a concept to properly capture a distinct and substantial type of international activity and to identify its characteristic effects and limitations.