How the European Union Can Develop its Approach towards Global Policy Networks

Increasingly, everything we do is done in social networks. Policy making is no exception to that. The role of global policy networks (GPNs) is one of the most interesting new developments in global governance. Yet, the European institutions do not have a comprehensive approach towards these networks. An action strategy for engaging with global policy networks would be the way forward to cope with the increasingly fast changing global governance architecture, as global policy networks progressively supplement other international actors like states, multinational corporations, global civil society or international organisations. We first review the relevance of networks in three broad policy fields which directly affect European foreign policy making: energy and environment, trade and finance and human security. Afterwards, we propose eight measures to better involve networks in European Union policy making.