Rapprochement between the EU and the UN: History and Balance of Intersecting Political Cultures

Abstract: This article elucidates how the affiliation between the EU and the UN occurred historically and depicts a potential roadmap of how regional entities can affirm themselves in a globalized world. It endeavours to draw up a balance sheet of failed commitments and positive outcomes while pointing to how both organizations influenced the other’s political culture. This contribution takes a very empirical approach and draws on neo-functionalist and constructivist theories in order to demonstrate that the ever closer cooperation among the Europeans within the UN structure has triggered EU regional collaboration with the UN organization. The study argues that the frequent consultations in New York resulted in common EC/EU Presidency statements (section II) and a higher voting consensus (section III). Both multilateral organizations eventually forged various practices of collaboration (section IV) and established a permanent regional–global dialogue (section V). The conclusion calls the history of the convergence a process of cross-pollination and it develops the concept of ‘UNization’, in addition to the existing concept of ‘Europeanization’. The ever stronger partnership shows great promise in tackling contemporary challenges, on the condition that the EU does not fail to proceed with institutional updates.

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