The European Union and the Question of Palestine’s Status in the United Nations

Abstract

The 66th and 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly (2011-2013) saw a quick evolution in the status of Palestine in the United Nations. After a failed application for full membership, Palestine’s request for the upgrade to “non-member observer state” was accepted. In reaction to the events, the discourses of both the EU and EU’s Member States coexisted in the international arena, presenting contrasting or complementary response proposals. Our hypothesis is that the highly contested nature of policies related to the Middle East Peace Process caused the inability to reach a common position among the 27 EU Member States, thus letting States free of pursuing their own agenda. A contrasting discursive trend, namely the Member States’ praise and support for the European Union’s role in the issue independently of the actual position proposed, is an indication of the approach that Member States pursue when it comes to the formulation of foreign policy, where the European arena is used as an enhancer of national policy but not necessarily as a constraint. How this is relevant for the “international actorness” of the European Union will be the object of our study.