EU coordination in multilateral fora as a means of promoting human rights laws abroad

Journal article

This article presents two arguments and explores the relationship between them. First, the principles governing coordination between the EU and its Member States in multilateral fora (mainly, sincere cooperation and unity in the EU's representation) serve to increase the Member States' influence in international law-making. Thus, there is a trade-off between the autonomy of Member States to determine their own positions in multilateral fora, and their capacity to influence such fora: the lesser the former, the greater the latter. Second, such an influence can be used by the EU and its Member States to promote human rights laws abroad, “uploading” high standards into multilateral treaties, which are subsequently “downloaded” by third states through ratification and implementation. Therefore, there is a link between the mentioned EU external relations law principles (which are a “condition” for a successful promotion) and the obligation to promote values set in arts 3(5) and 21 TEU (which provides the “direction” of the promotion). Consequently, when Member States complain about excessive EU intrusion into their autonomy through common positions in multilateral fora, they should bear in mind that they are not only bound by the above-mentioned legal principles, but that their obligation to promote certain values abroad is also at stake. The case of the EU's influence on the Maritime Labour Convention and its impact on Chinese law and policy is used to illustrate the arguments.

Authors: Garciandia Igal, D

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: European Papers
• Journal: European Papers
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 423-442
• Publication date: 2024-07-22
• Acceptance date: 2024-06-25
• DOI: 10.15166/2499-8249/764
• ISSN: 2499-8249
• Language: English
• Keywords: China; European Union; sincere cooperation; international law; external relations; human rights