Differentiated integration in European external action

Abstract

Recent developments in European external action and foreign, security and defence have triggered ever more complex differentiation processes, layered on top of a set of already differentiated policies in foreign, security and defence areas. This leads to an increasing diversification of policies directed at stronger intergovernmental coordination in a number of key government areas, namely external action, defence, migration and border management, development cooperation, climate change as well as internal and external security. It has been argued that these measures are necessary to address the simultaneous endogenous and exogenous pressures on the Union amounting to an existential political and legitimacy crisis for the European Union (EU), aggravated by the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU. Taking a broad conception of EU External Action, including the above-mentioned portfolios, this chapter dissects the cross-sectoral involvement of institutions in the field. With an emphasis on the trend towards increased organizational specialization, it asks whether involving national and EU authorities bound together in the joint performance of these essential functions, amounts to the emergence of a ‘differentiated space of European external governance’ and how these developments resonate with the EU’s overarching strategic frameworks, the EU Global Strategy and the European Neighbourhood Policy. To elucidate these questions, the focus is put on the increased coordination and differentiation of labour between the European External Action Service and the competent EU Commission’s Directorate-Generals as well as foreign as well as the respective ministries at EU and member state level.