The EU’s Leadership in the Global Governance: Perceptions from the Others

Leadership is a fundamental requirement for the EU to be able not only to achieve its aims but also to have an impact on the global governance. However actual leadership depends on the ability of an actor to transform its resources into ability to lead, and on the attitude of other actors to be willing to be lead. Fundamental conditions for this to happen are resources of both hard and soft power, but also the image that other relevant international actors have of the EU. Drawing from the research project The External Image of the European Union (GARNET - EU FP 6) and other literature in the field, the chapter looks at the perceptions of the EU’s leadership (actual or potential) that other actors hold, with particular attention to the elites interacting with the EU in multilateral fora.