Market Power Europe

While the identity of the European Union (EU) may have normative and/or other characteristics, it is fundamentally a large single market with significant institutional features and competing interest groups. Given these central characteristics, the EU may be best understood as a market power Europe that exercises its power through the externalization of economic and social market-related policies and regulatory measures. Such an exercise of power, which may occur as intentional or unintentional behaviour, suggests the EU is fully capable of using both persuasive and coercive means and tools to influence international affairs. By scrutinizing the EU's identity, official documents and initial evidence, the article provides an analytical framework for understanding what kind of power the EU is, what the EU says as a power and what the EU does as a power.