How does the European Union export its rules and regulations to its partners during free trade negotiations? While the research fields on EU foreign policy promotion abroad and external perceptions seem to have settled on the notion that the success of EU rule export increases with the internalization of the negotiation partner’s wants, this article challenges this academic consensus. Scrutinizing the EU-India free trade negotiations (2007–2013) where the perception of EU norms turned from positive to inherently negative, the article shows that the Commission successfully constructed the notion of congruence between European and Indian standards on multiple (international, bilateral, regional) fronts during an initial “honeymoon phase” (2007–2011). Yet, once the negotiations’ focus shifted to hard bargaining over core interests, the notion of congruence gave way to tensions and discrepancies, so that perceptions turned negative over the “cooldown” (2011–2013). Analysing claims made by EU and Indian policy officials in four Indian English-speaking quality newspapers—Times of India, Hindustan Times, Hindu Business Line and the Business Standard—the article suggests that the discursive construction of congruence with the local context, however successful, cannot prevail against battles over core interests. Hence, this article provides starting points for new academic junctures in that it introduces a more nuanced understanding of the EU’s approach to rule promotion abroad.

在自由贸易谈判期间，欧盟如何向其合作伙伴出口其规章制度？尽管关于在国外促进欧盟外交政策和外部观念的研究似乎已经建立在这样一种观念上，即欧盟规则出口的成功随着谈判伙伴的需求的内在化而增加，但本文对这一学术共识提出了挑战。文章仔细研究了欧盟与印度之间的自由贸易谈判（2007-2013年），从中人们对欧盟规范的看法从积极转变为本质上是消极的，欧盟委员会成功建立了欧洲和印度标准在多种（国际，双边，最初的“蜜月期”（2007-2011年）。但是，一旦谈判的焦点转移到对核心利益的艰苦讨价还价上，一致性的概念被紧张和差异所取代，因此人们对“冷却”（2011-2013年）的看法变得消极。分析欧盟和印度政策官员在四家讲英语的优质英语报纸上的主张，印度时报，印度时报，印度行业和企业标准-the文章认为，一致性的话语建设与当地的环境，但是成功的，不能战胜过核心利益争斗。因此，本文为新的学术关口提供了起点，因为它对欧盟的海外规则推广方法有了更细微的了解。