The European Union's development cooperation policy represents an important part of its external action, not least in budgetary terms. This thesis deals with the way soft norms (democracy, human rights and the rule of law) are promoted through development cooperation. The concept of « normative power » (Manners, 2002) is used as an idealtype to analyze the way the Union handles its development cooperation policy. The development cooperation policy is studied in its general dimension, through the analysis of European methods, and in its concrete dimension, i.e. through the field study of projects funded by the EU in partner countries. The case of projects supporting penitentiary reform was selected, as it allowed us to study the diffusion of norms on the ground in an area of sovereignty. Ultimately, the EU doesn't reveal much normative uniqueness compared to the other actors of international relations. The qualification of « normative power » doesn't seem appropriate for the EU as an international actor. The development cooperation policy is dependent on the external policy, and strategic concerns prevail over the diffusion of norms. On the ground, the EU delegations consider the development projects as a bureaucratic exercise, aimed at embodying the relation of cooperation, whatever the final results of the projects. Still, these projects create a forum where foreign experts and civil servants from the beneficiary state can exchange on their administrative practices and potentially imagine new public policy « solutions ».
