Risorse e strategie dell'Unione Europea come attore internazionale nelle politiche di biotecnologia e sicurezza alimentare

This article investigates the potential and limits of the EU as policy transfer. Food safety policy provides evidence that the EU is able to affect global governance when it plays as unitary actor. Its major countervailing power in the competition to influence international policy-making is the US. Transatlantic relations trigger a multi-level game, which involves domestic, international and supranational actors. This article analyses the relationships among the three levels, identifying the impact of the institutional systems on the normative preferences of the EU and of the US, the role of the international organizations and the effects of contested governance on food safety policy-making.