Conclusion: Messianism, mission, or realpolitik? Some concluding observations on the EU’s role in shaping the international legal order

The Union’s many engagements with the international legal order Reflecting on the contributions in this edited volume covering a wide range of policy areas and activities beyond the borders of the EU’s own territory there can be little doubt that the Union is not only firmly established within the international legal order, but is also actively involved in shaping it. This role is arguably a conscious choice rather than an unexpected side-effect of the Union’s engagement with the international legal order. Gráinne de Bárca in her contribution observes that Europe has developed from a project that was ‘primarily inwardly focused on repairing and strengthening a damaged continent so as to deliver internal peace and prosperity’, to ‘enhancing Europe’s global economic and political influence and role’. The case studies included in this book certainly support the latter conclusion. Yet one could also argue that from the start European integration was geared towards playing an active role in securing global stability and peace precisely because of the inward focus de Bárca refers to. Evidence for this seemingly paradoxical observation can be found in the grand promise of the Schuman Declaration which opens by stating that ‘World peace cannot be safeguarded without the making of creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it. The contribution which an organized and living Europe can bring to civilization is indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations’.

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