From the Common Agricultural Policy to the Eurozone Crisis: Bilateral Disputes in the Australia–EU Relationship

Abstract

Australia has historically focused on areas of disagreement with the European Union (EU) at the expense of establishing a more broad-based relationship. These areas of disagreement are the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), historically, and, to a lesser extent, the eurozone crisis. Criticism of the EU indicated the historical tendency of Australian governments to frame Europe as an actor behaving contrary to Australian interests. Australia’s historical antagonism towards the EU, however, runs counter to the current state of bilateral relations which are no longer focused on issues of disagreement. Evidence of this development is the recent completion of the treaty-level Framework Agreement i..