Abstract

The European Union’s role in promoting a normative foreign policy agenda and being a special actor in its policies abroad is frequently studied. This chapter tries to highlight the role of one European institution, namely the European Parliament (EP), and raises the question of whether the delegates of the EP are promoting a ‘normative power position’ within two inter-parliamentary cooperation fora: the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly and the Parliamentary Assembly – Union for the Mediterranean (PA-UfM). After a theoretical part introducing the ‘normative power Europe’ concept developed by Ian Manners, the chapter discusses how one can empirically work with the concept. An empirical part follows, and by analysing official documents of the two inter-parliamentary settings as well as secondary literature, the chapter tries to engage in the discussion about the role of the European Parliament in foreign policy in general and its normative power role in particular.