The International Responsibility of the European Union: Between pragmatism and Proceduralization

EU´s management of its international responsibility for wrongful acts moves between a pragmatic approach to the topic and the proceduralization of the responsibility.  The EU either lays down complex procedures in order to manage the allocation of responsibility  in order to (allegedly) preserve the internal division of competences or takes a pragmatic approach which disregards any internal division of competences. This paper critically analyses these two trends in EU´s practice. More precisely the paper draws on the experience in the WTO and in Multilateral Environmental Agreements as to show the oscillation between pragmatism and proceduralization takes place and the problems linked to each way of managing EU´s responsibility under international law. Also, the paper examines current development like EU´s accession to the ECHR or incipient EU´s Foreign Direct Investment Policy. With these two examples the paper traces the evolution of both trends.

Overall, the paper argues that instead of complex and slow procedures or ad hoc pragmatic solutions the EU should push for a rules-based approach which is at the same time pragmatic and respects the principles underpinning the proceduralization of responsibility.