About this project:

The European Foreign Policy Observatory was established as a research group in 2001 with the aim of fostering debate and deepening knowledge about the foreign policy of the European Union. To this end, its activities focus on the development of new theoretical and thematic contributions, as well as the internationalisation of its researchers, who find in this research group a privileged channel to showcase their scientific work and participate in European research networks. Since its inception, the Observatory has been directed by Professor Esther Barbé (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Barcelona Institute of International Studies). The Observatory is recognised as a consolidated research group by the Generalitat de Catalunya in its Support for Research Groups program (SGR 2021 00819).

Following the dynamics of the projects carried out so far and the evolution of the research subject (the European Union in the international order) towards a more complex and uncertain context, the group aims to develop a research agenda for the period 2022-2024 based on the results obtained in the previous stage (2018-2021), particularly in EU-NormCon and EU-Listco, which focus on the contestation of the multilateral international order and the challenges from neighbouring regions (Russia, Arab countries), as well as the growing polarisation within the EU and its impact on the formulation of European policies.

The challenge for the period 2022-2024 is to develop the research agenda based on the results obtained in the previous stage but in a context of rapid and radical transformation of the international order, accelerated by the effects of the pandemic and the re-emergence of power politics in Europe itself (war in Ukraine). The team will carry out its work within the framework of various funded projects (ENGAGE, EUSOV, RENPET, ENTER) with a spirit of cross-fertilisation among them. However, the EUSOV project (The Emergence of European Sovereignty in a World of Systemic Rivalry: Strategic Autonomy and Permissive Consensus) will be the backbone of the group, involving nine members of the group and five collaborators.

EUSOV problematises the EU’s new discourse on European sovereignty and strategic autonomy as a response to major international changes leading to the fragmentation of the international order. The objective of EUSOV is to analyse the variety of responses that can be found within the EU in the face of this fragmentation. The EU’s Global Strategy (2016), a key policy document on the subject, does not reflect the plurality of existing options. The group’s objective in the coming years is to identify the variation in how European actors (states, EU institutions, civil society organisations) perceive and could react to the fragmentation of the order in different sectoral areas (finance, trade, technology, energy, human rights, migration, nuclear proliferation, etc.).