The European Union’s foreign policy rhetoric at the United Nations General Assembly

How do European Union members balance national and common European Union positions when acting in international organisations? This article studies the rhetoric of national and European Union diplomats in the United Nations General Assembly, examining the influence of domestic and European Union-level factors on revealed foreign policy priorities. Analysing almost 40,000 speeches from 1993 to 2022, we identify a latent dimension that pits countries that emphasise multilateral cooperation against those that focus on national security and sovereignty. Our results suggest that member states with a higher quality of democracy and left-leaning governments are more prone to emphasising multilateral cooperation. Furthermore, we identify a division of labour between national and European Union diplomats. This division became even more important after the Lisbon Treaty, which significantly extended the mandate of European Union diplomats.