'It's not what they say but how they say it': How Third Country Diplomats in Brussels Perceive the EU

The current rich amount of research on EU diplomacy and the EEAS (e.g. Carta 2012; Austermann 2014; Batora/Spence 2015; Smith/Keukeleire/Vanhoonacker 2015; Wouters 2015, Duquet 2014) mostly investigates how the EU and its member states conduct diplomatic relations with the outside world, but there is no comprehensive assessment of how third countries relate to the EU in their diplomatic relations, and - even more relevant for this proposed section - of how third country diplomats perceive the EU as a political entity. This paper investigates the practical day-to-day relationship between the EU and diplomatic representations in Brussels. The diplomatic corps accredited with the European Union is made up of 164 countries (next to 28 permanent representations of EU MS), which matches the size of the diplomatic corps in Washington (163 countries plus 28 MS), London (162 countries plus 28 MS), or Paris (157 countries plus 28 MS). The paper focuses on “how states say it” (diplomatic practice” rather than “what they say”, building theoretically on the notion of “practice theory” (see special issue Conflict and Cooperation 50(3) in September 2015). Providing both quantitative and qualitative data, the paper aims to assess how diplomatic missions of third countries relate to the EU as interlocutor and how their practice reflects the perceived intergovernmental-supranational balance of the EU as political system.