Roundtable, 5 Dec. Brussels: Quo vadis EU diplomacy in the Eastern Partnership (EaP)?

Submitted by Maastricht University on Fri, 10/26/2018 - 10:12

EU Foreign Policy Cooperation: Quo vadis EU diplomacy in the EaP?

Practitioner-Academic Roundtable

Date: Wednesday, December 05, 2018

Venue: Kent University (Brussels School of International Studies), Boulevard Louis Schmidt 2A, 1040 Brussels, Belgium​

This workshop brings together practitioners and academics to debate and discuss the role and practice of EU diplomacy In achieving the goals of the EU Global strategy of building state and societal resilience in the neighbourhood, of engagement in a practical and principled way of peacebuilding and supporting global governance around the world. Divergence of member states’ interests and that of interests among Brussels institutions is the most cited reason in the academic literature for the dysfunctionalities of the EU’s strategy in international politics. To what extent does EU diplomatic practice achieve collective action on the ground in times when the external challenges put pressure on interest-driven foreign policy? The flaws of the pre-Lisbon institutional system are often linked to the lack of continuity and leadership. Today, how does the post-Lisbon EU diplomacy with an increasingly institutionalized foreign policy articulate its own objectives? How does it employ (public, cultural, educational, trade) diplomacy in practice and what does it seek to achieve? 

These questions will be the starting point for this academic-practitioner dialogue. Given the ring of instability that surrounds the EU from Eastern Europe to the Caucasus, the Middle East and the Horn of Africa; and given the change of the international global order with the rise of China, an unstable transatlantic partner such as the USA and the geopolitical tensions with Russia; the European diplomacy is in great demand and perennial questions regarding EU diplomatic performance are to be addressed during the workshop. The intention of the workshop is to to discuss with the practitioners in Brussels the evidence-based research conducted by the scholarly community on the ENP-East  in order to learn what is working and what is not, and to identify areas and directions of improvement. 

This roundtable is organised by Dr. Dorina Baltag, lecturer at Maastricht University and NORTIA fellow at Kent University Brussels and Dr. Tom Casier, Jean Monnet Chair at the Brussels School of International Studies. The event is kindly supported by the Jean Monnet Network on Research and Teaching in EU Foreign Affairs (NORTIA) and organised in cooperation with the Global Europe Centre of the University of Kent. 

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