eprintid: 10113755 rev_number: 22 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/11/37/55 datestamp: 2020-11-04 10:48:46 lastmod: 2022-01-17 23:28:52 status_changed: 2020-11-04 10:48:46 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Maurer, H creators_name: Wright, N title: A New Paradigm for EU Diplomacy? EU Council Negotiations in a Time of Physical Restrictions ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B03 divisions: C03 keywords: European Union (EU) diplomacy; Council of the European Union; COVID-19; e-diplomacy; virtual diplomacy; technology; communication; governance note: © HEIDI MAURER AND NIChOLAS WRIGHT, 2020. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). abstract: Can diplomacy work without physical presence? International relations scholars consider the European Union (EU) the most institutionalised case of international co-operation amongst sovereign states, with the highest density of repeated diplomatic exchange. In a year, the Council of Ministers hosts on average 143 ministerial and 200 ambassadorial meetings, along with hundreds of working group meetings. These intense diplomatic interactions came to an abrupt halt in mid-March 2020, when the spread of COVID-19 forced the Council to approve — in a manner unprecedented in European integration history — the temporary derogation from its rules of procedures to allow votes in written form, preceded by informal videoconferences between ministers or ambassadors. This argumentative essay reflects on how we can use these extraordinary months of intra-European diplomacy to assess the viability of virtual diplomacy in the EU context and what lessons it provides as we seek more sustainable means of international engagement. date: 2020-10 date_type: published publisher: Brill official_url: https://doi.org/10.1163/1871191X-BJA10039 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1825783 doi: 10.1163/1871191x-bja10039 lyricists_name: Wright, Nicholas lyricists_id: NWRIG92 actors_name: Flynn, Bernadette actors_id: BFFLY94 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: The Hague Journal of Diplomacy volume: 15 number: 4 pagerange: 556-568 citation: Maurer, H; Wright, N; (2020) A New Paradigm for EU Diplomacy? EU Council Negotiations in a Time of Physical Restrictions. The Hague Journal of Diplomacy , 15 (4) pp. 556-568. 10.1163/1871191x-bja10039 <https://doi.org/10.1163/1871191x-bja10039>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10113755/3/%5B1871191X%20-%20The%20Hague%20Journal%20of%20Diplomacy%5D%20A%20New%20Paradigm%20for%20EU%20Diplomacy_%20EU%20Council%20Negotiations%20in%20a%20Time%20of%20Physical%20Restrictions.pdf