ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces important approaches and concepts surrounding the European Union (EU) role in International relations (IR). It evaluates the potential, relevance and impact of these concepts by presenting selected literature, either explicitly or implicitly referring to the arguments and measures of the respective concepts. The chapter focuses on the sub-concepts presented by J. Jupille and J. Caporaso. It presents the concrete circumstances, measures and levels of power enabling the EU to act as an international player are of interest to studies concerning the European neighbourhood policy (ENP), and the underlying concepts of EU presence, actorness and effectiveness can be identified in a variety of ENP-related literature. For scholars attempting to develop a constructivist analysis, intersubjective processes are essential to an understanding of EU actorness. To assess the relevance of the concept of EU actorness to the scholarly debate on the role of the EU in the ENP, it is helpful to identify a variety of sub-concepts of actorness.
