Amid growing global geoeconomic pressure, the EU’s dilemma to be an effective geoeconomic actor is not from a shortage of suitable instruments, but rather from the constraints that prevent their timely and consistent use.
These constraints operate at three levels: first, external integration into the global economy makes geoeconomic action risky and its effects unpredictable; second, internal dynamics arising from 27 member states with divergent interests and exposures, as well as complex decision procedures, make collective resolve difficult; and third, the normative foundations that underpin the EU’s vision for itself contradict the idea of a “geoeconomic Europe”.
The Briefing Paper uses four case studies – the Anti-Coercion Instrument, the EU–Mercosur agreement, foreign direct investment (FDI) screening, and the Industrial Accelerator Act – to illustrate how the EU’s capacity to be an effective geoeconomic actor is limited by these persistent constraints.
Realistic steps to strengthen the EU’s geoeconomic agency include reducing information gaps among member states, clarifying when existing instruments can be activated, and using the EU’s rule-based identity as a deliberate source of strategic credibility.
