Delegations of the European Union and representation of power in communication towards the Southern Neighbourhood countries

Abstract

The thesis is devoted to analysing the EU's communication with Southern Neighbours (SNs), namely Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. The purpose of the study is to identify what the EU's communications disclose about its role as Hard, Soft, Normative or Transformative Power in the region. The literature describes the actorness of the EU in the world by all four forms of power. However, the competition between these concepts inside the official discourse of the EU Delegations (EUDs) has been less investigated. Data for the current research comes from the content of the country-specific statements and press releases that appeared on the EUDs' websites from June 2016 to March 2021. The methodology is a combination of quantitative and qualitative content analysis. The work reveals that the EU appeals to its Transformative Power more often in comparison to the other concepts of power in its communications to the three SNs in focus. Moreover, the thesis critically assesses external perceptions of the EU based on 2016 and 2020 opinion polls. It unfolds the problems of the current communication strategy of the EU with SNs. This review is followed by recommendations for possible improvement of the efficiency of the EU's power representation on the international stage. The thesis attempts to add to the discussion...