ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to delve into the specifics of how the European Parliament (EP) has been able to participate in the external action of the European Union (EU). Despite a relative lack of formal powers in the realm of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), the Parliament interacts with a host of foreign actors, and these interactions directly affect the Union’s foreign policy. Furthermore, the EP’s external action is not limited to ‘soft’ issues such as human rights or development: it is engaged in the high politics of war, peace and sovereignty that have traditionally been reserved for representatives of states.
This chapter offers an in-depth empirical analysis of a case of parliamentary involvement in a foreign policy issue of high salience: the EU’s relations with Kosovo after the province unilaterally declared independence in 2008. The EP employed its dual powers of formal parliamentary oversight (such as plenary debates and resolutions) and external parliamentary diplomacy (such as inter-parliamentary meetings or election observation missions) to push for its preferred policy outcome: recognizing Kosovo’s sovereignty.
