Publications
Initial Briefing for Practitioners #2
This brief presents practitioner-oriented implications derived from the research conducted in the second year of the ENGAGE project, for which it presents four sets of takeaways. The first set focuses on the acceptability of EU efforts in defence and security in the national parliaments of Member States and among the public. The second set of takeaways is related to structural changes in the EU’s external environment. The third set zooms in on the legal bases for the EU’s external action, while the fourth and final set relates to various tools, policies and strategies of the EU’s external action.
Case Studies of Trade, Development and Humanitarian Action
This paper develops an analytical framework to explore the internal and external factors that facilitate or obstruct linkages among external action plus policies and how these linkages contribute to EU external action. The results of the empirical work show considerable variation across the three policy areas of trade, development aid and humanitarian aid and the factors that matter for issue linkage. Overall, the contribution reveals important issue linkage dynamics that shape policymaking and serves as a platform for future research and policy recommendations on external action plus.
Analysing Political Acceptability of Reforms Among National Policymakers
This paper explores the perceptions and preferences of Member States (MS) with regard to EU foreign and security policy sheds light on various MS’ positions regarding a range of reforms and underused mechanisms by assessing levels of acceptability among national policymaking elites. The paper’s data reveals a divide among MS on the acceptability of various reforms but shows that some room for negotiation exists.
Securitisation of the Neighbourhood: EU-Driven Frame Alignment and Projection on Southern and Eastern Neighbourhood Partner Countries
This paper scrutinises the EU-driven strategic framings of “neighbours” and “neighbourhood” through a critical and thorough investigation of the European Neighbourhood Policy’s (ENP) documents and related official EU texts. The paper identifies that increased securitisation of the ENP has taken place between 2003 and 2022, alongside and increasing diversification and overlap across different policy fields within the ENP.