Does the EU ever import its policies? The overlooked role of international institutions

Prevailing narratives commonly depict the EU as a key actor shaping international norms and a net exporter of policies. However, we know little about how the involvement of the EU in the international arena affects its own policy development. Does the EU ever import policies from international institutions? This study examines the prevalence of policy import within the EU's legal framework, scrutinising the conditions and mechanisms that can facilitate such imports. I analyse the contributory role of compliance with international norms, the existence of successful models, the expectation of competence expansion, and crises in shaping the likelihood of policy import. I test this on a novel dataset comprising 1,194 legislative files introduced post-Lisbon in the European Union between 2008 and 2022. The key descriptive finding is that more than 20 per cent of the legislative files in this period incorporate models and policies from international institutions. This paper systematically analyses the relevance of international commitments across diverse policy areas in EU policy-making, offering valuable insights into this under-explored dimension. It illustrates that international models and commitments have tangible ramifications on EU legislative decision-making, leading to policy change and innovation.