Strategic Autonomy: A New Identity for the EU as a Global Actor

Abstract

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2023 8(2), 417-428 | European Forum Insight of 27 July 2023 | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. Strategic autonomy in EU external action discourse. - III. Strategic autonomy and the collective exercise of sovereignty at the EU level. - IV. Streamlining EU external action through strategic autonomy. - V. Conclusions. | (Abstract) Over the last decade, strategic autonomy has become a key tool for structuring the EU’s external action. This Insight examines the evolution of the concept in EU discourse and practice, explores its consequences on the emergence of the notion of "European sovereignty", and analyses how strategic autonomy is used to streamline both hard-power and soft-power contemporary EU external relations. The central role of strategic autonomy – in turn an ambition, an objective, a process or even a method – sheds new light on core issues surrounding EU external action law, such as power, sovereignty and the articulation of the EU-Member State relationship.

Keywords

• external action
• sovereignty
• power
• competences
• common foreign and security policy
• common commercial policy