EU Diplomacy: Measuring Success in Light of the Post-Lisbon Institutional Framework
This paper discusses the effects of the EU’s external relations institutional framework on the conduct of its diplomacy. Drawing upon the academic writing in the field, we attempt to take a step further, examining how the post-Lisbon external relations ar
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1 Introduction One of the aims of the Lisbon Treaty, which came into force in December 2009, was to allow the European Union (EU) to play a greater and more effective role in international affairs. A few years after this latest revamping of the EU, it seems appropriate to examine its position in the world and, further, what its prospects are for the future. Soon to comprise 28 Member States with a population of more than half a billion while being the world’s biggest trader and aid donor, the EU is undoubtedly a significant player in international relations. However, the verdict is still out on whether it is, or ever will be, a global power. This chapter aims to address this question from an institutional perspective. In particular, we examine the legal characteristics of the new single European institutional architecture with its novel actors in EU external relations in an effort to draw specific conclusions as to their effect on EU diplomacy. This analytical exercise is informed by the understanding that often internal rules and actors are as important as substance in international relations. Thus, the constitutional structures of the Union foreign policy machinery deserve close scrutiny if the question posed in the title of this book is to be fully answered. The following part describes the EU external relations architecture that has been put into place by the Lisbon Treaty. It explains some of the legal innovations, and how they sought to enhance the EU’s external relations by addressing prior criticisms about the Union’s foreign policy architecture. The subsequent part turns to how these treaty innovations have been applied in practice, including some of the unforeseen consequences of the overhaul of the EU’s external relations machinery. It does not
T. Ramopoulos (*) • J. Odermatt Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, Institute for International Law, University of Leuven, Law Faculty, House De Dorlodot – Deberiotstraat 34, 3000 Leuven, Belgium e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] A. Boening et al. (eds.), Global Power Europe - Vol. 1, Global Power Shift, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-32412-3_2, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
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give a detailed account of the post-Lisbon EU external relations architecture; rather, it combines legal analysis with specific concrete examples from practice, examining the main obstacles that have hindered the realisation of a more effective EU diplomacy in the post-Lisbon environment. The conclusion seeks to understand how the actual conduct of EU external relations fits with the ambitions of Lisbon.
2 Post-Lisbon External Relations Architecture One of the main criticisms of the EU’s pre-Lisbon external relations architecture was its lack of coherence in its foreign policy. This stems in large part from the nature of the Union as a political project still in progress. As an international actor with increasingly federal state-like characteristics, the EU has multiple political centres, all seeking to
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