Collective Power Europe? (TheGovernment and Opposition/Leonard Schapiro Lecture 2022)

Abstract

Since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, the EU has been tested and contested as it struggled to come to terms with a series of crises, sometimes labelled a polycrisis. In response to crises, the EU has emerged as a collective power and the concept ‘Collective Power Europe’ (CPE) offers a promising lens with which to analyse the 21st-century European Union and the nature of the polity that is emerging. The aim of this article is to unpack the concept of CPE and to analyse its core features – collective leadership and framing, institutional coordination and the evolving policy toolkit – in response to three crises: Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Geoeconomic Power Europe: When Global Power Competition Drives EU Integration

“…Most recently, Prontera andQuitzow (2023, p. 1002) have argued that the EU's use of 'catalytic power' through blended finance instruments reflects 'its nature as a quasi-state entity' that lacks the authority to directly control its member states' external actions but is able to co-ordinate them through collaborative investment projects, as manifested also in the EU's internal governance. Similarly, for Laffan (2023), the EU is best characterised as a 'collective power' involving a multiplicity of actors, which reflects its 'compound nature'.…”

EU Strategic Autonomy after the Russian Invasion of Ukraine: Europe's Capacity to Act in Times of War

“…The focus is on the EU's ability for collective and impactful decision‐making. Laffan (2023) recently argued that through past crises, such as Brexit and COVID, ‘the EU has gained the capacity to mobilize resources and get things done – in other words to display “collective power”’. However, the question remains how this collective power is used and to what extent it enables the EU to influence global developments based on its own preferences.…”