Externalising internal policies via conflict: the EU’s indirect influence on international institutions

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper identifies an innovative mechanism of how the EU’s internal policies could lead to policy adaptations within international institutions. Having authority over the single market, the EU regulates important market actors whose behaviour is oftentimes crucial for the effectiveness of global cooperation projects. By intentionally or unintentionally creating a vertical regulatory conflict with an international institution, the EU might influence the behaviour of European market actors in a way that it undermines the effectiveness of the international institution. To preserve its effectiveness, the external institution is forced to adapt towards European internal policies to dissolve conflict and to enable mutual compliance for European market actors. The potential of the mechanism is explored in two cases: The EU’s externalisation of data protection to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the externalisation of European fundamental rights to the UN Security Council. The process tracing finds that the EU is able to carve out authority from international institutions under specific conditions.