FINLAND & PALESTINE Proceedings of a Joint Workshop

Development ofthe £V's Political Role
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its disposal the kinds of instruments that individual countries
lack - particularly the enlargement policy, and the European
Neighborhood Policy Instrument. But, in addition to the fields
of the EU's 'traditional strengths', the Union's Member States
clearly want the Union to have a greater say in matters related
to the foreign and security policy - and even defense policy.
Such a desire is understandable, in view of the fact that there
are strong links between economic, trade, development, political,
and security matters in today's world.
The EU, like any international actor, seeks to ensure that any
significant development, or change, is positive/progressive.
What can be considered progress, of course, has to do with the
interests and values of the one making the assessment. When
it comes to the EU, the central values often referred to are
democracy, rule of law, separation of powers, respect for human
rights, equality, and social security, among others.
However, the EU's foreign policy actorness should not be seen
only in terms of the values and interests of the Union and its
Member States, but, also, as concerns the institutional identity
formation. Identity is the ground from which both values and
interests arise. The EU is still a project-in-the-making, and
there have been various prospects for the direction, and final
form, of the European integration. 2
The decisions the EU takes to act usually reflect the various purposes
of the EU's actorness in circumstances that encourage or
provoke the Union to act. Purposeful action is always about the
ways in which the existing realities may be changed. In pragmatic
judgement, action that has no practical consequences is meaningless.
The purposes are not exclusive, of course, but motivat­
2 See e.g. Adler (1997); Peterson and Sjursen (eds, 1998); laidi (ed. 2008);
Wiener and Diez (eds, 2004).
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