ABSTRACT
The development of interregional relations and the promotion of democracy are two pillars of the EU’s identity as an international actor. Its willingness to build interregional relations is one of its distinctive features, making it unique in international relations. Thanks to interregional relations – in particular the pure ones, binding together two regional organizations (ROs) as such – the EU promotes the development of regional integration experiences on other continents, somehow trying to export its model because ‘it can be considered as the only successful example of regional integration so far’ (European Commission, 1995: 8).
