EU as a global actor

The European Union and the Black Sea: State of Play

American Graduate School in Paris, since January 2013

Coordinated by professors Sinem Acikmese and Dimitrios Triantaphyllou from Kadir Has University (Istanbul), this project has derived from the huge gap in academic literature on EU’s policies towards the Black Sea, when compared to the importance of the region for the EU as reflected in voluminous EU official documents. The Black Sea region has been of crucial importance for the European Union because of the opportunities and challenges that the region encompasses for EU politics and the Union’s socio-economic features.

The project gathers well-established scholars as well as new-generation promising experts mostly from the Black Sea region as authors. They would have the chance to reflect the local tensions and opportunities about the EU integration process in the Black Sea by also reviewing the discussions and the literature in their original languages. This proposal has been supported and funded by Black Sea Trust of the German Marshall Fund,

The EU as a Global Actor: Mixity Principle in Environmental Negotiations

European University Institute, Florence, 2003-2009

The research work carried out at the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the European University Institute under Prof. Adrienne Héritier's supervision addressed the mechanisms that allow for the joint participation of the European Union (EU) and its member states (MSs) in multilateral bargains. The thesis investigates how and to what extent the distribution of competences between the European Commission and the Council of Ministers influences the performance of the EU in the negotiation of global environmental agreements. The methodology consists of comparative case study analysis based on a two-level approach grounded in rational choice institutionalism. Three cases of multilateral agreements that regulate the access and use of common marine living resources are studied. are studied. Data stem mainly from Law databases, official journals, press records and semi structured interviews with representatives of the Commission, member states and third countries. Results shed light on the external impact of institutional arrangements within the Community, and their relevance to the study of the EU as a global actor. A revised version of the thesis was published in November 2012.

European Worldviews: Ideas and European Union in World Politics

European University Institute, Florence, 2005-2007

Coordinated by Prof. Pascal Vennesson (RSCAS/EUI), the project aims at understanding the influence of personal experiences on the political choices made by European political leaders. The underlying assumption is that personal background, which encompasses, inter alia, education, professional background, party affiliation, and personal beliefs play a critical role in shaping the preferences and the priority goals pursued by political leaders. The project has analyzed the views of eight European Union (EU) top officials involved in commercial policy, security strategy, agriculture and environmental affairs. Although important, such personal factors are rarely incorporated in the research design due to the difficulty of submitting these variables to a systematic analytical and methodological framework. The project draws on Leites (1950, 1952) and Alexander George's (1969) approach "Operational Code", but adapts it to a contemporary political context, as well as to the wider amount of information about such leaders.