“Paradigmatic change” with much continuity? EU's approach to values in external policies in the age of contestation

ABSTRACT

This contribution aims to compare and contrast the evolution of “EU shared values” debate in the EU's external policy over the period from 2015 to 2018. In this introductory comment, we look at how the “values vs interests” dilemma plays out in recent EU's strategic documents such as the European Global Strategy, as well as at the state of debate in mass media, academia and civil society. We ask: Is the EU's external action becoming more normatively oriented or more pragmatic in response to internal and external contestation? How are changes in responses communicated, and how does contestation affect and how does the EU reflect such communicative processes? The two subsequent contributions, dealing with trade policy and the European Neighbourhood Policy, provide a detailed analysis of the evolving role values play in these two external policies.

KEYWORDS:

• EU
• democracy
• crisis of international liberal order
• contestation
• values
• policy change

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Maryna Rabinovych is a PhD Candidate at the University of Hamburg and Global Community Manager at the Ukraine Democracy Initiative (University of Sydney). She held visiting positions at the Universities of Thessaloniki (2016/2017) and Vienna (2018). Ms Rabinovych holds an LLB from Odessa National University and an LLM in EU law from the University of Hamburg. Her research interests include EU external relations law, EU trade law, trade and development nexus in the EU, Agenda 2030 and its implementation by the EU.

Zuzana Novakova is a visiting scholar at Boston University and a PhD researcher in International Political Economy at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. She is also an affiliated researcher of Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Before entering academia she worked with the European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think-tank. Her research interests are the intersection of crises and policy-making, the social content of European integration, and EU’s role in societies in transition.