The European Union in International Organisations

Research question/goal: 

Over the past decades, the European Union (EU) has evolved considerably as an international actor and has worked towards increased involvement in international organisations (IOs). The aim of this project was to show to what degree the EU, as the most advanced regional integration organisation and thus a ‘most-likely case’, has gained a formal or informal status in IOs, and to explain the observed variance. Additionally, the project intended to map and understand the EU's effective status, i.e. the degree to which the EU can effectively make use of its status in an IO. It is known that, despite the same formal status, there is a broad variation in the actual rights the EU enjoys in different IOs. In particular, two questions were asked: a) Why are there different arrangements between the EU institutions and EU member states in cases of joint IO membership and how can observed differences be explained? b) Why are there different arrangements for the EU as an observer in IOs and how can observed differences be explained? In order to answer these research questions, a dataset on the EU's status in IOs has been compiled.

Current stage: 

The project was discontinued at this point due to the departure of the project leader and is planned to be resumed at a different place.

Fact sheet

Funding: 
University of Mannheim, MZES
Duration: 
2014 to 2019
Status: 
continued elsewhere
Data Sources: 
EEAS Treaties Office Database, Yearbook of Internat. Organizations, Correlates of War, own data collection, intervies
Geographic Space: 
European Union, EU member states and worldwide

Publications

Journal Articles

Wetzel, Anne (2018): Flexible Integration und Compliance – Lehren aus der Energiegemeinschaft. integration, 41, issue 3, pp. 228–240. more

Book Chapters

Wetzel, Anne (2014): Methodology. Studying the EU's Long-term Participation with(in) International Organisations. Research Design, Methods and Data. Pp. 17-34 in: Amandine Orsini (Ed.) The European Union with(in) International Organisations: Commitment, Consistency and Effects across Time. Farnham: Ashgate. more

Conference Presentations

Wetzel, Anne (2017): The European Union’s Status in International Organisations. [1st Regional Research and Networking Conference, Heidelberg, January 27th, 2017] more
Wetzel, Anne (2017): The Inter-Organisational Relations Between the European Union and International Organisations. [24th International Conference of Europeanists, University of Glasgow, July 12th to July 14th, 2017] more
Wetzel, Anne (2017): The Inter-Organisational Relations Between the European Union and International Organisations. [5. Offene Sektionstagung der DVPW-Sektion „Internationale Beziehungen“, University of Bremen, October 04th to October 06th, 2017] more
Wetzel, Anne (2016): The European Union’s Status in International Organisations. [Drei-Länder-Tagung „Regionalismus in einer entgrenzten Welt“, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität, Heidelberg, September 29th to October 01st, 2016] more
Wetzel, Anne (2013): Mapping the EU's Participation in International Organisations - Findings and Problems. [EUSA Thirteenth Biennial Conference; Baltimore, Maryland, Baltimore, Md, May 09th to May 11th, 2013] more
Wetzel, Anne (2013): Mapping the EU's Participation in International Organisations - Findings and Problems. [Annual Congress of the Swiss Political Science Association, Zurich, January 31st to February 01st, 2013] more