First mentioned in the EU’s European Security Strategy (ESS), this concept places main emphasis on a rule-based international order, supported by strictly cooperating international organizations with the United Nations at its core.

Hence, within the broader ambition of making its impact felt on the global scene and on establishing itself as a credible international actor, the European Union has advanced the cooperation with and reinvigoration of the UN system as one of its main foreign policy priorities. Furthermore, in the lead-up to the 2005 World Summit, the EU has sought to provide several decisive contributions to the formal process of the UN’s institutional reform – where the most identifiable effort centred on the creation of the Peacebuilding Commission. Combined with the fact that the EU countries currently account for more than 50% of the UN’s operational funding and for over 60% of UN development funding, the Union should indeed be in a front-runner position to have a decisive impact on the reinforcement and enhancement of the UN system’s effectiveness.

Yet, the compromise achieved in the wake of the World Summit has by no means rectified all deficiencies. The UN’s reform process, in the wider sense, continues to be one of the most pressing challenges of the current efforts to provide a workable and effective system of global governance. The relevance of the EU for such an effort within the wider reform of the UN-system is therefore readily apparent. Particularly in light of the long-standing and successful tradition of European multilateralism, the EU and its member states could prove to be instrumental in the UN’ efforts to devise means and concepts of effective multilateralism.

In order to move beyond simply reviewing the EU’s rhetoric and verbal commitments, the project aims at launching a comprehensive, multidisciplinary and realistic assessment of the EU as a global actor in the UN’s wider reform process. This involves, in particular, a clear and robust analysis of the key EU-UN cases of interaction and cooperation with a view on their effectiveness in terms of policy results.

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