The EU’s quest for
strategic autonomy calls for a consolidation of the Union as a polity. Such a
consolidation brings about a new balance between openness and closure in the EU
legal order. This article unravels the joint dynamics of re-bordering and de-bordering
in EU law oriented at safeguarding the Union’s internal policy space from undue
interferences and ensuring a level playing field in the internal market. In
this context, EU law is mobilized to harness the political weight and market
power of the Union vis-à-vis external players. The article describes the
cross-competence nature of these dynamics whereby securitarian considerations
inform diverse internal and external policy areas. The political novelty of
this bordering through law principally lies in the upscaling at the EU level of
public policy interests that would otherwise be considered to be the province
of Member State actions. In that light, the article discusses the relational
reconfiguration of the exercise of Member State powers in unitary frameworks of
Union law and its sovereignty enhancement potential.