The European Union in informal intergovernmental organizations: mapping an emerging research agenda

The European Union (EU) regularly participates in informal international governmental organizations (IIGOs) to drive informal policy-making in various areas. Yet we lack systematic empirical information and theoretical grounding about this engagement. Existing work mainly focuses on states as IIGOs’ primary members or on specific issue areas, and disregards the scope of the EU’s IIGO engagement. Therefore, we provide an empirical mapping of 119 cases that offers a systematic overview of the historical development, key areas, participating states, and the EU institutions involved. We find that the EU’s engagement is significantly higher than previously assumed, includes all EU main bodies, has a particular focus on security issues and conflict management, and aims especially at states in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Based on this, we discuss the drivers, aims, and consequences of the EU’s systematic IIGO engagement to identify candidate explanations for outlining the contours of an emerging research agenda.