Research Papers

The EU’s role in global electronic communications fora has been under-explored in the academic literature. The sector itself is complex, growing, differentiated and, at the same time, convergent in character. However, it can be usefully thought of as comprising the traditional sub-sectors of mass communications broadcasting, telecommunications and, more recently, the Internet. Whilst there is growing and influential literature on the EU in international regimes and organisations, such work does not explore comprehensively how the EU shapes and is shaped by its interaction with and action in global organisations and regimes for electronic communication. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to focus on the Internet, telecommunications and broadcasting through an analysis of the evolving international political economy of these sub-sectors, with which the EU has a well established and ongoing engagement. This will provide not only a more detailed analysis of the EU’s role and influence in these sub-sectors but also a direct comparison of the EU’s performance globally in the communications sector, something which has not been done before in the literature. More broadly, at a time when the EU’s role is challenged and in transition in a multi-nodal and multilateral global environment, this paper will provide valuable insight into the way in which the EU can be effective as a global agent in the global electronic communications milieu.