The European Union at the ILO's International Labour Conferences: A 'double' principal-agent analysis

How does the European Union coordinate its policies in international organizations? Based upon detailed information from participating officials and numerous documents, in this chapter I analyse the policy coordination among the EU member states before and during the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) three-week International Labour Conferences in Geneva that are held every year in June. These conferences are by far the most important activities as far as the ILO is concerned and I see them as the best proxies for an overall analysis of the European Union’s relationship to the ILO.