The European External Action Service and the unity and coherence of European Foreign Policy

• Author: Brian Crowe
• Profession: Director del Centro Europeo de Estudios Políticos y Diplomáticos en la Universidad de Oxford
• Pages: 43-56

THE EUROPEAN EXTERNAL ACTION SERVICE

AND THE UNITY AND COHERENCE

OF EUROPEAN FOREIGN POLICY

Brian cr o w e

Director del Centro Europeo de Estudios Políticos

y Diplomáticos en la Universidad de Oxford

The title I have been given for this article focuses on the importance

of the European External Action Service (EAS), created by the Lisbon

Treaty, for the coherence of the EU’s foreign policy.

This, in common with much of the public discussion of the exter-

nal aspects of the Lisbon Treaty, risks putting the cart before the horse.

The EAS is undeniably important, but it is subordinate. The key change

made by Lisbon in the EU’s foreign policy dispositions was not the EAS,

but was rather the abolition of the rotating presidency in external rela-

tions and giving to a single person these responsibilities plus those of the

Commissioner responsible for external relations.

Depending on how you count the High Representative, Javier Sola-

na, whose formal job description was simply to «assist» the Presidency

(Amsterdam Treaty), this meant combining in a single person two, or

three, hitherto different jobs. And not just jobs, but jobs with functions

which the founding fathers had deliberately kept separate in accordance

with the principle of the separation of powers.

Getting twenty-seven member states and the Commission to agree

to common policies is extraordinarily diff‌icult even in favourable cir-

cumstances. The aim in Lisbon was to make this easier by eliminating

the tensions between Presidency, High Representative and Commission

though the simple expedient of giving these three different functions to

one person.

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