Focus on Germany London Office The Chandlery Office 609 50 Westminster Bridge Road GB London SE1 7QY Tel 00 44 20 77 21 87 45 Fax 00 44 20 77 21 87 46 www.feslondon.org.uk February 2007 The European Union: Protagonist in a Multilateral World Order or Peripheral Power in the»Asia-Pacific« Century? As the world moves towards a multipolar power constellation with China and India challenging the established US-dominated west­ern world order, Europe risks marginalization. Europe should re­act by promoting fair and effective multilateralism and developing strategic partnerships with the rising powers of the 21 st century. Dirk Messner With 25 member states, 450 million inhabi­tants and a contribution to the world GDP of 25 percent the European Union belongs among those actors which influence global­governance processes and can help to deal with global problems. The EU articulated its readiness to assume global responsibilities in the European Security Strategy of De­cember 2003. At the same time, European foreign policy is still in the process of devel­opment. A common perspective on central global issues, as well as a definition of pan­European interests which must go beyond Prof. Dirk Messner is Director of the German Development Institute(DIE) and member of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) the sum of the interests of member states remains to be attained. In what follows, we shall first list a number of fundamentally positive factors to which the EU can appeal when going about the construction of its global-governance ca­pacities. Against these assets, however, we shall set a number of central weak points which the EU must overcome if it is to gain in importance as a global-governance actor. Furthermore, we shall sketch the conse­quences for the world order of the rise of China and India. It is clear that the transi­tion from a quasi-unilateral, us-dominated power constellation to a multipolar one can lead to a creeping erosion of multilateral in­stitutions. Neither the»old world power«, i.e. the US, nor the rising global powers in