The political project for European Union is defined by its inherent dialectic as both part of and a distinct response to globalisation.

Like other regionalisms, the EU is broadly committed to openness or ‘open regionalism’. But the project for European Union has also been defined by its pursuit of a social capitalism and the promotion of the so-called European social model. The dialectic of European Union revolves, at least in part, around the extent to which these purposes can be reconciled, how these two poles interact and condition each other, how this duality of purpose impacts on the internal institutions of the EU and how this process redefines the EU’s relation to world order more broadly, as the EU emerges as a global actor able to influence the nature of globalisation.  This article seeks to scrutinise some aspects of this dialectic.