In this Commentary, CEPS Associate Senior Research Fellow Michael Emerson looks at whether the so-called BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) actually form a bloc, and concludes that they do not. Three of them form part of another group: IBSA (India, Brazil and the South Africa Dialogue Forum) and are more advanced as partners. However, what both BRICS and IBSA do is confront the European Union with discomforting questions about its role as global actor.