The EU’s Contribution to State Recognition: An Instrumental Approach
Journal: European Foreign Affairs Review
Year: 2020

The European Union has no legal capacity to recognize or to refuse to recognize States. However, the broad array of instruments contributing to the diversity and scope of its external action singles it out within the highly varied category of international organizations. The changing degree of mobilization of its different instruments depending on the geographical proximity of the contested entity, on political considerations such as the power of the third States supporting the contested entity,