ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the book’s case study, namely, the coordination of common standards (policy norms) that aim at guiding policy practice between EU institutions and member states in the area of international cooperation and development. The chapter traces collective action in international development over time and embeds this evolution into a wider internal and international context. The evolution of collective action in Community and later EU international cooperation left a gap between the policies of the EU institutions and the member states. Especially since the 2000s, the EU began to formulate common policy norms for collective EU action as its contribution to the international efforts of enhancing the effectiveness of development cooperation. The chapter demonstrates how considerations about collective effectiveness began to shape the coordination and contestation of common policy norms and how this has been connected to institutional and international developments.
