Challenges and Opportunities for the European Union as a Global Actor

Center for the Study of Europe Challenges and Opportunities for the European Union as a Global Actor (04/30/24) Join us for a lecture by Jan Wouters, Full Professor of International Law and International Organizations, Jean Monnet Chair ad personam EU and Global Governance, and founding Director of the Institute for International Law and of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, an interdisciplinary research centre with the status of both a Jean Monnet and KU Leuven Centre of Excellence, at KU Leuven.

The European Union strives to be an actor which, in its relations with the wider world, aims at promoting democracy, human rights, the rule of law and the principles of international law in order to enhance multilateral cooperation and the rules-based international order and bring about “good global governance”. Especially over the past few years there have been some important developments, both within and outside the EU, which affect the Union’s aspirations and performance as a global actor. From the development of new instruments to achieve the aforementioned goals, to the implications of rule of law backsliding within EU Member States and of external events such as the War in Ukraine and in Gaza, and the more general crisis of multilateralism and the rules-based order, this presentation aims at giving a critical assessment of the challenges and opportunities for EU actorness in world affairs.