Global Europe? The new EU external action instrument and the European Parliament

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article investigates the involvement of the European Parliament (EP) in the preparations of the new EU external action financing instrument (2018–2021). From an explorative perspective, we analyse how the EP contributed to the changes in EU development policy discourse that prepared this fundamental reform, and to the reform itself by promoting its priorities and preferences during the negotiations. We propose three potential research directions on the EP's role in European development policy and the changing function of this field within external policies. The analysis of the negotiation process describes how the EP used its co-legislative role to introduce changes to its other two development policy roles: budgetary control and supervision. The complex nature of the new instrument and the perspectives of the co-legislators create uncertainty on how these changes will affect the EP's influence on the EU's development policy, and how the instrument will reform established development policy approaches.