Political issues series: 'Yes to the EU' concept, with EU lettering. Photo realistic, with space for your text / editorial overlay

Abstract: This article introduces the EU as an attractive actor. It aspires to classify approaches shaping the current debate about various aspects of the EU’s relations towards other international actors (Europeanisation, soft power, civilian power or normative power) and derives two dimensions of attractiveness: 1) attractiveness leading to issue adoption and 2) attractiveness leading to the adoption of these issues on various levels and combination of these. This scheme is applied on EU governance mechanisms and value paradigms and helps to identify reasons behind the EU’s external attractiveness.

Keywords: European Union, attractiveness, actorness, Europeanisation, power, governance