The Role of the EU in Shaping Global Supranational Governance

Pilar Lorente
Member of the Federal Committee of UEF

Mario Telò and Anne Weyemberg (eds.)
Supranational Governance at Stake
Routledge, London, 2020

The fact that the most pressing challenges of our times are of a global nature is nowadays undisputed: the effects of climate change, loss of ecosystems and biodiversity, inequality, depletion of natural resources, among others, have a global reach and have triggered the successive economic, environmental, social and health crises that characterize our present. However, there is no effective and democratic global architecture to govern this globalized world. The global “order” of the post-WWII paradigm has evolved into an international regime of high complexity and legal and policy fragmentation, where the forces of neoliberal deregulation, national sovereignty, multilateral cooperation and regional political integration interplay without any common global framework of rules. If we consider the most advanced experiment of supranational integration, the EU, we see that the tension between supranational governance and national sovereignty is inherent to the political integration process. However, now this tension, within and beyond Europe, is exacerbated with the surge of nationalism and Euro-scepticism, along with international leaders that question and boycott multilateralism.

In this context, are supranational institutions at global level the best answer to this complexity and fragmentation? What are the potential and limitations of supranational governance? How can the EU contribute to build an effective and democratic global governance? These are some of the questions that drive the EU research project GEM STONES^[i], whose outcomes are presented in the book Supranational Governance at Stake. This publication brings together a detailed analysis of several scholars on how the external dimension of the EU integration process and policies impact globalization in five main areas: competences and legitimacy in supranational institutions; the external dimension of the area of freedom, security and justice in the EU; EU initiatives towards a sustainable development; EU contribution towards global economic and monetary governance; and the influence of trade policy in transnational regulatory cooperation.

The study covers a wide range of law, institutional and policy aspects that reveal the intricacies of the internal functioning of supranational bodies, such as the attribution of different level of competences, issues about legitimacy and accountability, the redefinition of institutional balances and division of powers, the capacity of interacting with other international actors or of producing global legislation in different areas, among others. Several specific case studies are presented to illustrate the complexity of the matter: EU external dimension of rural development, comparative analysis of ASEAN^[ii] and the EU, the global impact of the functioning of the Economic and Monetary Union in the creation of imbalances, or the efforts to externalize the policy against trafficking of human beings, among others.

Climate change and sustainable society is the case of a multifaceted and clearly global policy area where we can observe the complexity in the interaction of national, supranational and international governance. While the EU has greatly promoted domestic transition to an economy with low greenhouse gas emissions, through the setting of binding targets for its Member States^[iii] and several dedicated programmes and policies, and it also leads the global cause for climate change mitigations, at the same the EU faces important limitations in negotiating international agreements in a policy of shared competency. However, the EU may include environmental issues as part of its trade agreements, where the EU has exclusive competences, using trade policy as a vehicle to pursue the environmental targets and promoting regulatory cooperation at a transnational level. All of this evidences the positive impact of a supranational body by triggering its own internal transformation and setting the global agenda, as well as how the level of competences in different policy fields may facilitate or inhibit the influence of the EU on transnational legislation. Furthermore, the increasing involvement of citizens and civil society organizations in the fight against climate change, forming movements that transcend national borders and become truly global, brings another key element into the discussion on global governance: the importance of enabling the direct participation of citizens in the decision making on global matters.

Today’s reality changes so rapidly that it is difficult for any scientific publication to keep up with its pace. Unfortunately, this book was completed at the beginning of 2020 and does not include any reference to the initiatives introduced by the new European Commission led by Von der Leyen, such as the EU Green Deal, which showcases the EU commitment to work for a sustainable and inclusive society, placing the fight against climate change and the transition to renewable energies and a circular economy at the centre of the European and global agenda. In the same way, the crucial developments following the current health crisis, such as the dramatic increase of the EU budget and the creation of the Next Generation EU package show the capacity of response of a supranational organization to mobilize resources and advance towards further integration in a moment of crisis, though it also evidences the difficulties to provide a fully coordinated response.

Nevertheless, this compilation of essays on the external dimension of different EU policies contributes to build a bridge between the EU and global studies, and provides an outstanding and robust analysis of legal, institutional and policy aspects of the supranational institutions, based on the EU experience. The multiple angles and nuanced analyses of this study gives us a much better understanding of all the hurdles and difficulties to overcome, but also the transformative power of supranational institutions, their resilience and their potential to introduce elements of effectiveness, inclusion, democracy and accountability in a global “order” where they are currently missing.

[i] GEM-STONES project (acronym for Globalization, Europe and Multilateralism- Sophistication of the transnational order) has been funded under the Marie Sklodowska Curie programme.

[ii] Association of Southeast Asian Nations

[iii] The 2020 package introduced binding targets to achieve:  20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions (from 1990 levels); 20% of EU energy from renewables and 20% improvement in energy efficiency https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/strategies/2020_en