"Governance through Policy Transfer in the External Relations of the European Union; The Case of Mercosur"

The EU is at the forefront of an emerging pattern in international relations, so-called biregionalism. The Union increasingly seeks to establish relations with other world regions while actively promoting the emergence of regional integration projects. The EU’s relationship with Mercosur is unique in this regard as it is the only currently existing form of “pure interregionalism” between two customs unions. As biregional relationships are a relatively new phenomenon in the international system, this paper asks how the EU sets out to structure them. Applying a governance approach to the case study of EU-Mercosur relations, it analyses the extent to which policy transfer is considered a viable strategy by the three main European institutions (Commission, Council and Parliament) in this regard. It draws on the policy transfer framework developed by Dolowitz and Marsh to dissect the EU policy-making process to formulate a policy vis-à-vis Mercosur. It asks what the EU is inclined to transfer, what role each of the three European institutions plays in the process and what the reasons and justifications for such a strategy are. It argues that a lot of the concepts used in the formation of these external relations have their origin in internal EU policies and suggests that this strategy can be considered a form of external governance that does not differ fundamentally from governance in the domestic realm. In addition, it posits that the use of policy transfer in the formation of the EU external relations has clear “normative connotations” based on an EU-specific idea of international order