IES Research Projects

The European Union Policy towards Greater China

(1) Conceptualizing the Interaction Pattern in a Multi-Level Institutional Setting

In this project, it is our endeavour to conceptualize, to assess and to evaluate how the European Union, within the framework of its multiple-level governance, establishes an interaction pattern with Greater China while taking into account the multiplicity of actors and the specific nature of the institutional set-up on the Chinese side.

(2) Between realism and idealism: the normative basis of the EU’s China policy

In this project we aim to examine the role of norms in the EU’s endeavour to come up with a coherent policy towards China. There is presumably an ethical basis for the EU’s China policy which cannot be accounted for by simple, rational calculations based on self-interest and pragmatism. Such a presumption, however, needs to be qualified through an investigation of the extent to which normative justification as ‘a mode of decision-making’ shapes the EU’s position and policies on China.

Promoters: Prof. Dr. Bruno Coppieters & Prof. Dr. Erik Franckx
Researchers: Sigrid Winkler & Xiaokun Song

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