Multilateral Issues and Crisis Management

The euro crisis highlighted the EU’s reliance on multilateral institutions in 2011. The EU repeatedly turned to the IMF for financial and political support throughout the year. Franco-German efforts to use the G20 summit in November as an opportunity to restore faith in the euro turned into a shambles, in part because of doubts about Greek and Italian policies (see component 66). While the EU previously used multilateral institutions to support and influence others, it has thus increasingly looked to global multilateral institutions to buttress its own unity and economic security. At the same time, the EU continued to attempt to shape events elsewhere in the world through multilateral processes – and was remarkably successful given the circumstances.

In last year’s Scorecard, we concluded that the EU had scored some defensive successes including on climate change and the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but that it had not created a sense of new purpose or vision in multilateral activity. In 2011, European interventions had more positive effects across a range of institutions and negotiations. The EU and US persuaded majorities of UN member states to censure Libya and Syria through the UNGA and UNHRC – two forums in which Western influence has been weakening for years. French President Nicolas Sarkozy cleverly recast the May meeting of the G8 as a show of support to the Arab Awakening. European sanctions and French troops enforced the UN’s calls for Côte d’Ivoire’s elections to be respected. The EU took an even clearer leadership role on climate change – an issue on which the US continues to punch below its weight – and the success of UN talks in making progress towards a legally binding deal on carbon emissions was the result of European diplomatic brinkmanship. [...]

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