The normative ethics of the European Union

The European Union has been, is and always will be a normative power in world politics. This is a strong claim with a critical aim: to promote normative approaches to the study of the EU. This article examines the normative ethics of the EU within the context of the special issue's discussion of ethics in EU foreign policy. This will involve a discussion of the ethics of the EU's normative power, that is, the power to normalize a more just, cosmopolitical world. The article will first consider the creative efforts of the EU's 'normative power' in conceptual terms. it will then consider the nine substantive normative principles the EU promotes in world politics: sustainable peace; social freedom; consensual democracy; associative human rights; supranational rule of law; inclusive equality; social solidarity; sustainable development; and good governance. The article will then discuss how to judge the EU's principles, actions and impact by using three major approaches to procedural normative ethics-virtue ethics, deontological ethics and consequentialist ethics. The article concludes by arguing that we must judge the EU's creative efforts to promote a more just, cosmopolitical world in terms of its principles, actions and impact, although these may differ. These three approaches provide the EU with maxims that should shape the EU's normative power in world politics: live by example, be reasonable and do least harm.