Reassessing External Images of the EU: Evolving Narratives in Times of Crisis
Journal: European Foreign Affairs Review
Year: 2021

The past decade has challenged the EU and its international image. The Eurozone sovereign debt crisis, the Ukraine crisis, the so-called irregular migration crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic have all put the EU under severe strain. This article explores if and how the EU’s performance in such crises has impacted upon the external image of the EU. The analysis shows that external images have closely followed the EU’s actual performance, although filtering it through the powerful lenses of local an