The EU: Identity, Confidence and Foreign Policy in a Multi-Polar World

In a speech given by European Centre for Public Affairs (ECPA) Executive Director Tom Spencer to the Pittsburgh University Center for European Excellence earlier this year, Spencer argues that Europe’s identity is increasingly external, thus strengthening the need for sound foreign policy.

Spencer, speaking at the time of the EU’s 50th birthday celebrations, describes the the founding story of ‚European values‘ as being from a divided Europe – Franco-German rivalry, the story of Lotharingia, and more recently by the Red Army, the story of Europe’s eastern boundary. 

The Europe of 2007 –  ‚whole and free‘, except for the Western Balkans – is however now in need of „a new story“, according to Spencer. The ECPA  executive director argues that Europe increasingly sees its foreign policy as a natural extension of the methods of European federalism – a mixture of treaties and targets – and that Europeans are busily constructing a foreign policy around energy security, climate change, the response to Islam and global governance – in short, melding the traditions of European and world federalism.

But, says Spencer, „the Union remains mired in the aftermath of the Constitutional Treaty. It needs a powerful new story to re-energise itself, but it needs a version of the new Treaty, however cherry-picked, in order to push ahead with the self-same foreign policy.“ 

To read the full speech, please click here.