One Actor, One Too Many Voices? The EU at the UN General Assembly

The article tests the assumption that the deepening integration brought on by the
European Union’s Treaty of Lisbon should have a palpable effect on the dynamics of
EU Member States’ action at the United Nations. Building on existing scholarly
literature, on interviews with diplomats and staff of the European External Action
Service at two UN headquarters locations, as well as on a case study of what is
arguably the most universal of multilateral bodies, the UN General Assembly, the
article assesses the “voice of the EU” on the global multilateral scene. It concludes
that, in spite of the abundance of theoretical and practical arguments for increasing
the unity of European diplomacy, action in the UNGA does not provide grounds for
an overly hasty departure from a state-centric view of EU foreign policy.