The European Parliament's foreign policy behaviour: the case of EU foreign policy towards Ukraine following the Russian war of aggression

This article sheds light on the foreign policy behaviour of the European Parliament, which is traditionally considered to have a “quite limited” role in this policy domain. It aims to fill a theoretical and empirical gap by using role theory concepts to investigate the behaviour of the Parliament's IX legislature in EU foreign policy towards Ukraine following the Russian war of aggression. It addresses the following research puzzles. How has the EP tried to shape the EU's understanding of its proper response following the Russian war of aggression? What has been the Parliament's foreign policy performance towards Ukraine? Has the EP behaved as a policy entrepreneur advocating foreign policy change to help Ukraine? The empirical analysis is based on the qualitative content analysis of 55 resolutions and in-depth conversations with 27 interviewees. This article makes two main contributions. It suggests a framework, based on role theory concepts, to empirically explore the behaviour of the EP in different cases of EU foreign policy. The specific case examined reveals that the EP behaved as a foreign policy entrepreneur because it was the first EU institution to conceptualise the most critical foreign policy changes that would later become part of the EU response.