Values and Principles in the EU Foreign Policy. A Normative Reading of the Transatlantic Divide

Abstract What has been recently called ‘Old Europe’, is a European political actor that embodies the values and principles on which the process of European integration started and which have been intersubjectively reshaped during the same process. To the initial strong belief in the values of ‘Democracy’, ‘solidarity’, ‘liberty’, ‘multilateralism’, a faith in the virtues of ‘prevention’ have gradually added that soon translated into the application of the ‘precautionary principle’ in various areas of ‘domestic’ (EU) and foreign policy. Prevention through a structural modification of the external environment became a key feature of EU FP. Despite apparent similarities with the logic behind the Bush Strategic doctrine (of which democracy and prevention are key-words too), differences are fundamental and disruptive both of the transatlantic alliance and the European Union. This paper wants to shed more light on the normative background of EU foreign policy (EU FP), exploring EU FP’s “difference” by pointing at the values, principles and worldviews that emerge form EU FP, and to how they are linked to the process of European integration. The paper contributes to the understanding of the EU-US difference showing that what explains it better are not conflicting values but the different interpretation of the same values and similar principles.