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8 - The EU and international institutions

Bart Van Vooren  and
Ramses A. Wessel
Bart Van Vooren
Affiliation:
ALTIUS, Brussels
Ramses A. Wessel
Affiliation:
University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
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Summary

Central issues

  • This chapter explores to what extent the EU Treaties, secondary legislation and case law regulate the position of the EU in international institutions, understood as both formal international organizations and the less formal treaty-regimes. As highlighted by the position of the EU in the WTO in particular, the division of competences between the EU and its Member States forms an important part of this legal framework.

  • The Treaties list a number of general and specific competences related to the participation of the EU in international institutions. This chapter will list and analyse those provisions in order to assess the legal possibilities in this area.

  • The EU participates in many international organizations and other international forums. In which international institutions does the EU have a formal position, and which different forms of representation can be discovered?

  • Two examples deserve special attention: the WTO and the UN. On the basis of the participation of the EU in these two major organizations, we will further analyse the complexities related to this international role of the EU.

  • Finally, the active participation of the EU in international institutions leads to a number of normative effects of these organizations on the EU. What is the influence of international institutions on the EU?

    • Introduction

    As explained in Chapter 1, with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU has entered a new phase. No longer is the world confronted with both the EC and the EU as actors on the international stage; since 1 December 2009 the EU acts as the legal successor to the EC (Article 1 TEU), while maintaining one of its original policy fields: the foreign, security and defence policy (see Chapters 11 and 12). The EU has thus also replaced the Community in international institutions. In addition, the Lisbon Treaty increased the number of references to the role of the Union in the world and to its relationship with the United Nations (Article 21 TEU).

    Type
    Chapter
    Information
    EU External Relations Law
    Text, Cases and Materials
     , pp. 246 - 275
    Publisher: Cambridge University Press
    Print publication year: 2014

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