ABSTRACT
European Union (EU) promotion of human rights has recently become a
fertile avenue for research and interpretation. Some have located the development of such a policy in the ‘ontological’ attributes of the EU, arguing
that the principles that guided the development and enlargement of the
European project (peace, reconciliation, democratisation, multilateralism,
human rights, etc.) are the ‘constitutive’ features (Manners 2006) that make
the EU a distinctive and unique polity, or ‘normative power’ (Manners 2002).
Others locate the origins of such a policy in the structural attributes of the
EU foreign policy system, which aims at influencing through a range of
pacific and civilian means, structural and long-term changes (Keukeleire 2002). More empirically based studies highlight that with the exception of the
enlargement process, where the EU has acted as a ‘transformative’ power
(Grabbe 2006), human rights often clash with other foreign policy objectives
related to security, economic interests, or with the broader aim of main-
taining good relations with certain states, with divergences between the
member states, with inefficiencies of the EU foreign policy system and dif-
ferential treatments of partners (Smith 2001; Olsen 2000; Youngs 2004;
Balfour 2006, 2007). Studies in democracy promotion assistance have also emphasised many problems within the policies themselves, from misplaced
priorities, conservative approaches to human rights issues and tensions
between contrasting foreign policy priorities (Youngs 2001).
