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Evidence from the EU Presence at UNGA: In Pursuit of Effective Performance

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The EU in UN Politics

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics ((PSEUP))

Abstract

Following the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty and the changes in the European Union (EU) external representation, the EU sought to upgrade its status via the adoption of the Resolution 65/276, at the UN General Assembly (UNGA). In light of these developments, how has the EU’s international performance been affected? Our analysis offers a solid starting point to substantially comprehend and evaluate the EU performance at the international level. We spot three types of outcome mechanisms: (a) EU oral interventions, (b) EU voting behavior and (c) sponsoring of resolutions. In addition, we proceed to a first assessment of the use of the EU’s enhanced observer status rights granted by the Resolution 65/276 as an additional element of the EU performance at the UNGA.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Our semi-structured interviews cover the following three periods: (a) from April 2014 to May 2014 at the New York UN headquarters where we conducted interviews with EU officials of the EU Delegation and diplomats from the UN (including the EU) member states’ permanent missions; (b) from October 2014 to November 2014 in Brussels where we interviewed officials from the EEAS, the European Commission and the EU member states’ permanent representations to the EU and (c) from January to February 2016 where we interviewed, in Brussels and in Athens, EU officials from the EEAS as well as national diplomats.

  2. 2.

    See the annual EU priorities for the UN General Assembly, in http://eu-un.europa.eu/articles/articleslist_s27_en.htm.

  3. 3.

    The EU Delegation at New York invests in more than 1000 hours per year of internal EU coordination in order to sufficiently align the different EU member states’ policy preferences (interviews, New York, April–May 2014).

  4. 4.

    Interviews, New York, April–May 2014; interviews, Athens and Brussels, January-February 2016.

  5. 5.

    Interviews, New York, April–May 2014.

  6. 6.

    The official UN website constitutes our main foundation for data collection (http://www.un.org/en/ga/). We have analyzed in-depth all the UNGA Plenary and main committees’ meeting records for six consecutive sessions (64th, 65th, 66th, 67th, 68th and 69th). Our basic goal was to record all possible activities of the EU and its member states and document them in an integrated database. The complete database is available upon request from the authors.

  7. 7.

    Interviews, New York, April–May 2014.

  8. 8.

    Our analysis focuses on data collected from the works of the Plenary (PL) and the five main committees [First Committee (1C), Second Committee (2C), Third Committee (3C), Fourth Committee (4C), Fifth Committee (5C)]. We omit the sixth committee since all resolutions were adopted by consensus.

  9. 9.

    See Document A/C.1/69/L.23 at: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N14/574/36/PDF/N1457436.pdf?OpenElement and for the voting outcome at: http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmamentfora/1com/1com14/votes/L23.pdf.

  10. 10.

    See Document A/C.5/65/L.20 [PBI] at: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/N10/709/22/PDF/N1070922.pdf?OpenElement and for the voting outcome at: http://www.un.org/press/en/2010/gaab3980.doc.htm.

  11. 11.

    Interviews, Athens and Brussels, January–February 2016.

  12. 12.

    Interviews, Athens and Brussels, January–February 2016.

  13. 13.

    The exact list of all resolutions sponsored by the EU member states during the Plenary and the six main committees from the 64th to the 69th UNGA sessions is available upon request to the authors.

  14. 14.

    Interviews, New York, April–May 2014; Interviews, Brussels, October-November 2014.

  15. 15.

    Interviews, New York, April–May 2014; interviews, Brussels, October-November 2014.

  16. 16.

    Interviews, New York, April–May 2014.

  17. 17.

    Interviews, New York, April–May 2014.

  18. 18.

    As we already mentioned in endnote 3, the statistics prove that the EU Delegation needs more than 1000 outreach meetings and thousands of hours of negotiation per year to coordinate the diversity of member states’ positions.

  19. 19.

    Interviews, New York, April–May 2014.

  20. 20.

    Interviews, New York, April–May 2014; Interviews, Brussels, October–November 2014.

  21. 21.

    Interviews, Athens and Brussels, January–February 2016.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute, European, Italy

    Ioannis Galariotis

  2. Department of International & European Economic Studies, Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece

    Maria Gianniou

Authors
  1. Ioannis Galariotis
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  2. Maria Gianniou
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Correspondence to Ioannis Galariotis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece

    Spyros Blavoukos

  2. Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece

    Dimitrios Bourantonis

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Galariotis, I., Gianniou, M. (2017). Evidence from the EU Presence at UNGA: In Pursuit of Effective Performance. In: Blavoukos, S., Bourantonis, D. (eds) The EU in UN Politics. Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95152-9_4

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