Normativismi faktor Euroopa Liidu Hiina-poliitikas eurotsooni kriisi taustal

Abstract

Since the end of 2009, a debt crisis has been developing in the eurozone with severe implications on the stability of the financial system and also on the trustworthiness of the euro. Several European countries have required bailouts by the EU and the IMF. European leaders have called on China, which holds the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, to invest in the bailout fund to rescue struggling EU economies. Major human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have expressed fears regarding the possibility of the EU toning down criticism on China in exchange for financial assist. From that notion arised the key question of this bachelor’s thesis – to what extent has the eurozone debt crisis affected the normativity in the EU’s rhetoric towards China. In the beginning a hypothesis was erected, that the eurozone debt crisis reduced the normativity in the EU’s rhetoric towards China. The first chapter gave an overview of the normative factors in the principal treaties of the European Union. Then it was demonstrated , how Ian Manners associated these treaties with the proposed normative alignment of the EU. The second chapter examines the reasons of the EU’s discontentment with China. In the third chapter, a framework was created for researching the change in the EU’s rhetoric towards China between 2004 and 2012. For this assignment 19 speeches about China were analyzed and their tonality evaluated on a 10-point scale. All of the speeches were held by the president of the European Commission – Jose Manuel Barroso. The fourth chapter asked the question – how can the change in the tonality of the rhetoric be explained. A few alternative causes were then introduced and analyzed to examine their credibility. In the end it was concluded, that the debt crisis in the eurozone has reduced the normativity in the EU’s rhetoric towards China. An evident change in the tonality of the rhetoric was observed and other alternatives were disregarded to have been the reason behind it.