The European Union’s role in the world and the social dimension of globalisation

This discussion paper is based upon a multidisciplinary academic workshop held at DINÂMIA – Research Centre on Socio-Economic Change, Lisbon on 2-3 March that explored the nature of the external impact of the EU in relation to the social dimension of globalisation. In its widest sense, the social dimension of globalisation concerns the effects on people and societies of the globalisation of economic systems internationally. This workshop focussed largely on themes such as labour standards, decent work, employment, gender, health and human rights. In the current role as the holder of the EU Presidency, Portugal has an important role to play in relation to the EU’s external role; this document provides an overview to orient future actions. Given that the globalisation phenomenon is highly contested in public debate, focussing on its social dimension could provide a way in which to humanise globalisation and diffuse concern. It could, quite simply, legitimise the EU’s role in the world, particularly given the putative European social model, and the fact that the EU is a potentially powerful player in this context. EU initiatives in this area involve development, international relations, trade, governance and other policies, as well as indirect diffusion of social issues. Overall, the best approaches are those that combine different policies and both soft and hard approaches; that are coherent with internal EU policies; and in which social goals are consistent with trade and foreign policy goals. Geographical consistency is also necessary and, further, the role of the various actors should be clearly identified, both in terms of EU institutions and in relation to non-EU actors. Currently there are lacks in consistency and coherence, as well as doubts as to the EU’s commitment, ability and success in promoting the social dimension of globalisation. On the other hand, opportunities clearly exist, not least because the effects of globalisation are largely positive. This is an area in which further attention from both policy-makers and academics should be focussed, particularly in relation to the questions surrounding the success of programmes and policies, their coherence and consistency, the perspective of the developing world, and the involvement of civil society actors. Further, in practical terms, a periodic assessment report addressing the EU’s role in relation to the social dimension of globalisation and an international forum on the subject could usefully raise the profile of the EU’s external role in relation to the social dimension of globalisation and provide the first step in the next stage of this project

The rise of policy coherence for development: a multi-causal approach

In recent years policy coherence for development (PCD) has become a key principle in international development debates, and it is likely to become even more relevant in the discussions on the post-2015 sustainable development goals. This article addresses the rise of PCD on the Western donors’ aid agenda. While the concept already appeared in the work of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in the early 1990s, it took until 2007 before PCD became one of the Organisation’s key priorities. We adopt a complexity-sensitive perspective, involving a process-tracing analysis and a multi-causal explanatory framework. We argue that the rise of PCD is not as contingent as it looks. While actors such as the EU, the DAC and OECD Secretariat were the ‘active causes’ of the rise of PCD, it is equally important to look at the underlying ‘constitutive causes’ which enabled policy coherence to thrive well

South Korea's automotive labour regime, Hyundai Motors’ global production network and trade‐based integration with the European Union

This article explores the interrelationship between global production networks(GPNs) and free trade agreements (FTAs) in the South Korean auto industry and its employment relations. It focuses on the production network of the Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) — the third biggest automobile manufacturer in the world — and the FTA between the EU and South Korea. This was the first of the EU’s ‘new generation’ FTAs, which among other things contained provisions designed to protect and promote labour standards. The article’s argument is twofold. First, that HMG’s production network and Korea’s political economy (of which HMG is a crucial part) limited the possibilities for the FTA’s labour provisions to take effect. Second, that the commercial provisions in this same FTA simultaneously eroded HMG’s domestic market and corporate profitability, leading to adverse consequences for auto workers in the more insecure and low-paid jobs. In making this argument, the article advances a multiscalar conceptualization of the labour regime as an analytical intermediary between GPNs and FTAs. It also provides one of the first empirical studies of the EU–South Korea FTA in terms of employment relations, drawing on 105 interviews with trade unions, employer associations, automobile companies and state officials across both parties

Europeanisation should meet international constructivism: the Nordic Plus group and the internalisation of political conditionality by France and the United Kingdom

This article is a plausibility probe for the significance of international constructivist ‘mediating factors’ to explain variation in Europeanisation outcomes. It applies a most similar systems design (or Mill's method of difference) to show that the UK has internalised political conditionality to a larger extent than France at least partially because it has been the object of stronger socialisation pressures within the ‘Nordic Plus’ group. The article contributes to the literature on Europeanisation and development cooperation in two important ways. First, it enlarges its scope of analysis, both geographically (beyond new European Union member states) and thematically (beyond simple measures of aid quality and/or quantity). Second, it emphasises the importance of international (versus domestic) mediating factors. The empirical analysis focusses on three cases of aid sanctions in response to human rights abuses and democratic setbacks: Zimbabwe 2002, Madagascar 2009 and Mozambique 2009

From ‘Unilateral’ to ‘Dialogical’: Determinants of EU–Azerbaijan Negotiations

The European Union (EU) and Azerbaijan have negotiated three different agreements for a new legal basis underpinning their relationship since 2010. Whereas the EU tries to adhere to a more unilateral approach, Azerbaijan wants cooperation to take place on a more inclusive, dialogical, basis. The essay will present a model of ‘bargaining power’ to analyse how the Azerbaijani government has tried to enforce this, and to what degree it has been successful. It finds that the bargaining power model can explain some of the changing power dynamics in EU–Azerbaijan relations, and that these might speak to the broader Eurasian region too