General Conclusion

Abstract

Abstract In the introduction to the book, federalism was defined as a combination of self-rule and shared rule. Federalism thus understood has four components: power allocation, conflict resolution, political safeguards of federalism, and intergovernmental relations. Bringing together the findings with regard to these four components, this concluding chapter identifies four approaches to the quintessentially federal objective of striking a balance between unity and diversity in the foreign relations context. The US approach constitutes a ‘unity +’ approach, the Canadian approach an ‘external unity, internal diversity’ approach, and the Belgian approach a ‘diversity +’ approach. Compared with these three federations, the EU’s brand of foreign relations federalism represents a ‘diversity ++’ approach, characterized as it is by a balance between unity and diversity that tilts quite strongly—and arguably altogether too strongly—towards the pole of diversity. This negative assessment of the emphasis of the EU’s foreign affairs constitution on diversity is justified due to the democratic deficit that it entails. Diversity as it is understood in the EU foreign affairs constitution has a cost: the strong political safeguards of foreign relations federalism and the concomitantly weak checks on the two Councils shield EU foreign policy-making from the constraints imposed by representative democracy. The final section of this concluding chapter puts forward three proposals for reform that aim to put EU foreign relations on a firmer democratic footing.