ABSTRACT
Whether ‘normative power’ or not (see the Introduction to this volume; Manners, 2002; Sjursen, 2006), the EU perceives itself as a model for effective and legitimate governance to be emulated by other countries and regions (Risse, 2016).1 Moreover, the EU seeks to actively promote the development of genuine (intra)regional economic and political cooperation, the building of issue-related regimes, and the creation of joint institutions for consultation and decision-making in its neighbourhood and beyond, as well as between the world regions and the EU. In its attempt to promote regionalism as a distinct European idea (Bicchi, 2006; Grugel, 2004a), the EU sometimes constructs ‘new’ regions, e.g. in Sub-Saharan Africa, which share few regional characteristics (e.g. economic interdependence) and have hardly developed a collective identity. Thus, the EU provides a rich laboratory to study external influences on endogenously determined drivers of regional cooperation and integration. The EU and its Member States do not merely promote regional integration as a normative standard in their external relations with third countries and other regions – their ideas of regionalism beyond its borders also constitute causal beliefs since they are considered as the best way to ensure (regional) security, stability and prosperity at the EU’s borders and beyond (see Magen, 2006). Yet, explicit efforts by the EU to promote regional cooperation and integration often meet resistance. As we will argue in this chapter, the EU is often most successful as a model for regionalism when it ‘just sits there’, while others emulate and localize its institutional designs.
