The talk focuses on the issue of the EU international performance, i.e. how the EU interacts with the other international actors, be they states and/or other international and regional organizations. It presents and elaborates on an analytical framework, which makes a distinction between three levels of performance analysis: output, outcome, and impact. It argues that the deconstruction of the EU international performance to these three inter-related levels is necessary to better capture the dynamics of EU performance and account for it. First, at micro-level, the output perspective is related basically with the intra-EU process of policy-formation, focusing on the deliverables of internal political and institutional dynamics that delimit the EU international engagement. Second, at meso-level, the outcome perspective shifts attention to the implementation of the output and the deriving behavioral adjustment of the EU. It refers to the EU international activation along the output lines and captures how the EU takes this output to the international level. Third, at macro-level, the impact perspective assesses performance on the basis of the effect of the EU international outcomes, that is the result of the EU activities. Finally, the talk identifies and discusses three key parameters that condition the EU international performance: heterogeneity of preferences, internal and external competence of the EU, and the negotiating context within which the EU operates.

Keywords: EU international performance, levels of performance, output, outcome, impact
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Spyros Blavoukos is Assistant Professor at the Department of International and European Economic Studies, at the Athens University of Economics and Business. He holds a Degree in International and European Economic Studies from the Athens University of Economics and Business, an MA in European Integration and a Ph.D. in Politics from the Department of Government at the University of Essex. He is the Principal Investigator of the EUNNET Jean Monnet Network. He has co-authored three books (The Political Economy of the European Periphery, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014; Chairing Multilateral Negotiations: the Case of the United Nations, London:Routledge, 2011; The Last Presidency: Greece in the European Integration and the four Greek Presidencies of the EU, Athens: Papazissis, 2004). He is also the co-editor of two books (The EU and the non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, London: Palgrave, 2015; The EU Presence in International Organizations, London: Routledge, 2011). He has published several articles in international journals including Government and Opposition, European Foreign Affairs Review, Journal of European Integration, Review of International Studies, West European Politics, Journal of Common Market Studies, European Journal of Political Research, Journal of Public Policy, European Union Politics, Cold War Studies, South European Society and Politics, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy. He has also contributed in a number of collective volumes including the Routledge Handbook of International Organization (London: Routledge, 2013), the Routledge Handbook on the European Union and International Institutions (London: Routledge, 2013) as well as the Handbook on Security and Governance (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2015). He has participated in a number of research programs, among which the DOSEI Research Project (‘Domestic Structures and European Integration’) that was the only social sciences project nominated for the ‘2007 Descartes Research Prize for Excellence in Scientific Collaborative Research’.

For a detailed CV, please click here: http://www.eup-unga.eu/files/CV/CV-BLAVOUKOS-2014.pdf

Introductory Readings

• Blavoukos, S. (2015) 'Capturing the EU’s International Performance: An Analytical Framework', in S. Blavoukos, D. Bourantonis, and C. Portela (eds) The EU and the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Strategies, Policies, Actions (London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), pp. 12-30.
• Blavoukos, S. and D. Bourantonis (2017) 'The EU in UN Politics Analytical and Empirical Challenges', in S. Blavoukos and D. Bourantonis (eds) The European Union in UN Politics: Actors, Processes and Performance (London, Palgrave/Macmillan, 2017), pp. 1-26.
• Jørgensen, K-E (2013) ‘Analysing the performance of the European Union’, in Jørgensen, K-E and K. Laatikainen (eds) Routledge Handbook on the European Union and International Institutions (London, Routledge), pp. 86-101.
• Jørgensen, K-E., S. Oberthür, and J. Shahin (2011) 'Introduction: Assessing the EU’s Performance in International Institutions – Conceptual Framework and Core Findings ’, Journal of European Integration 33(6), 599-620.

 
Advanced Readings

• Blavoukos and D. Bourantonis (2017) The European Union in UN Politics: Actors, Processes and Performance (London, Palgrave/Macmillan).
• Blavoukos, D. Bourantonis, and C. Portela (2015) The EU and the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Strategies, Policies, Actions (London, Palgrave Macmillan).
• Gutner, T. and A. Thompson (2010) ‘The Politics of IO Performance: A Framework’ , Review of International Organizations 5, pp. 227-248.
• Oberthür, S., Jørgensen, K-E, and Shahin, J. (2013) The Performance of the EU in International Institutions (London, Routledge).