EU Policy Export: Cross-comparative Conclusions

The final presentation will summarize the conclusion of the book project ‘EU Policies in a Global Perspective – Shaping or Taking International Regimes’. Based on in-depth case studies of ten EU policy areas conducted for the project, the comparative results are presented. It discusses the outcomes of EU interaction with global regimes (policy export, policy import, policy protection) as well as the main pathways, mechanisms and conditions for successful policy export. Concerning the outcome dimension, it appears that in several policy areas the EU has been overall more of an importer than of an exporter. One reason is that global regimes have often already been considerably developed at the time the EU became more actively involved at the global level, with the EU ‘updating’ its policies through the import of international standards. Only at a later stage did the EU usually begin to actively contribute to the further development of key international regimes, with policy export playing a more prominent role. At the same time, the EU has strategically relied at times on policy import from the global level as a strategy to achieve progress in domestic policy harmonization and reforms of EU policies. Different cases have also shown a third pattern beyond import or export, i.e. EU policy protection: the EU tries to shield its own model and interests against pressures of globalization – particularly where its high regulatory standards are too demanding to be exported to third countries.