EU DIPLOMACY AFTER LISBON: INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATION, DIPLOMATIC PRACTICES AND INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY
This paper analyses the institutional changes to European Union diplomacy constituted by the Lisbon Treaty and the creation of the European External Action Service. These changes were meant to solve serious problems of horizontal and vertical incoherence in EU diplomacy that were caused by the netwo...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nicolae Titulescu University Publishing House
2014-05-01
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| Series: | Challenges of the Knowledge Society |
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| Online Access: | http://cks.univnt.ro/uploads/cks_2014_articles/index.php?dir=08_political_science_european_studies_and_IR%2F&download=CKS+2014_political_science_european_studies_and_IR_art.082.pdf |
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| Summary: | This paper analyses the institutional changes to European Union diplomacy constituted by the Lisbon Treaty and the creation of the European External Action Service. These changes were meant to solve serious problems of horizontal and vertical incoherence in EU diplomacy that were caused by the network organization of EU diplomacy and the divide between supranational and intergovernmental policy areas. The approach is based on three separate analytical dimensions. The first focuses on the reorganisation of the decision-making and policy-planning structures in Brussels, where particularly the new double-hatted post of High Representative and Vice-president of the Commission represents a watershed in EU internal coordination. Secondly, the constitution of the network of EU actors that act internationally is analysed, with special attention given to the now even more central role of the EU Delegations to third states, around which EU diplomatic representation has been streamlined. The picture is more muddied with respect to the EU’s participation in international organisations, with the main obstacles to a more coherent EU diplomacy remains: The clash between the EU’s non-state nature and the internal law of international organizations. Thirdly, it is argued that the recent institutional changes are indicative of a strategic shift in EU diplomacy, away from traditional transformative objectives of a structural nature and towards the consolidation of a more traditional Westphalian paradigm of the defence of interests in competition with other actors. |
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| ISSN: | 2068-7796 2068-7796 |