European union actorness in international institutions: Why the EU is recognized as an actor in some international institutions, but not in others

Thomas Gehring, Sebastian Oberthur and Marc Mühleck

ULB Institutional Repository from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Abstract: This article examines why the European Union (EU) is recognized as a relevant actor in some international institutions, but not in others. Drawing on theories of international institutions and corporate action, it develops a theoretical approach toward EU actorness that demonstrates under which conditions third parties gain an interest in recognizing this actor as a relevant party to international institutions and how the EU can become an actor in its own right. The EU is expected to be recognized as a relevant actor in an international institution if it has acquired action capability in the relevant governance area, while formal status plays an inferior role. This hypothesis is subsequently assessed for six international institutions that vary regarding the degree of EU action capability and the EU's formal status, including the WTO and IMF, FAO and WHO as well as two international environmental regimes. Empirical results confirm the fruitfulness of the theoretical approach. © 2013 The Author(s) JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Date: 2013-09
Note: SCOPUS: ar.j
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in: Journal of common market studies (2013) v.51 n° 5,p.849-865

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/168144

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://hdl.handle.ne ... lb.ac.be:2013/168144

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ULB Institutional Repository from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Benoit Pauwels ().