ABSTRACT

Academic interest in the origins and the diffusion of norms has increased over the last decade. While scholars in international relations have questioned the processes through which norms influence states and non-state behaviours and have endeavoured to understand which norms will matter and under what conditions (Finnemore and Sikkink, 1998: 894; Garth, 2002; Dezalay and Garth, 2005), similarly, in EU studies the literature has gone through several waves of research, developing around two main topics. One is related to the concept of normative power Europe (Manners, 2002) and the external legitimacy of the EU (Bickerton, 2011; Haukkala 2011; Sjursen, 2006), while the second teases out how the EU spreads its norms and values across time and space (Borzel and Risse, 2012; Coman, 2009; Dallara, 2014; Elbasani, 2013; Mendelski, 2013; Piana, 2010; Trauner, 2011). This body of research has significantly improved our understanding of both processes and outcomes; however, while it accurately describes the impact of international and European norms on the beneficiary countries, it rarely focuses on the relationship between international organizations (IOs) and the outcomes of their increased cooperation. A corollary question of this line of inquiry is how the distinctive inter-organizational relationship between different Regional IOs (RIOs) such as the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe (CoE) has played out when both have developed overlapping external policies in a shared target region.