Coherence, strategy and legitimacy – variations of a theme in the case of EU–China relations

ABSTRACT

The EU is asked to become an international actor guided by grand vision, strategy and pragmatism, in order to become more effective and legitimate. At the same time, the EU is often told to base its actions on coherence in order to achieve greater effectiveness, credibility and legitimacy. This article argues the EU currently foresees two modes of governance in EU external action: a “coherence mode” and a “strategy mode”. These modes can complement each other, or collide. While each of the modes of governance was meant to enhance legitimacy in the EU’s external action, the example of China shows the EU’s difficulties with applying these modes and questions their utility in enhancing the EU’s legitimacy.

KEYWORDS:

• European Union
• EU global action
• strategy
• coherence
• legitimacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Kolja Raube is assistant professor at the University of Leuven.

Matthieu Burnay is a lecturer (assistant professor) at Queen Mary University of London.

Notes

1. The EU-China Strategic Partnership includes a political dialogue (Pillar I), an economic and sectoral dialogue (Pillar II), as well as a people-to-people dialogue (Pillar III) that was more recently created in 2011.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by European Commission: [grant number This article was supported by funding from the ERA].