The European Union, Multilateralism and the Global Governance of the Internet

Whilst the global governance architecture of the Internet has evolved at pace in the last 10 years, the European Union’s (EU) role and influence in its development has been relatively understudied. This article contributes to closing this gap in the literature through an exposition of how the EU has sought to shape the emerging environment for Internet governance in the context of its quest for ‘effective multilateralism’. It identifies the type of multilateral governance that the EU has projected for the Internet globally and analyses how it has sought to do this through its interaction with key global Internet fora. It argues that the EU’s own self-defined role as a leader with a clear, preferred model for Internet governance contrasts with several constraints and contradictions faced in becoming an effective multilateral actor in this area.