The European External Action Service: Consequences for EU Institutions and Foreign Relations

Abstract

With the signing of the 2007 treaty reforming the European Union (the Lisbon Treaty), the European External Action Service (EEAS) was created. The underlying intention, to streamline EU external initiatives, had first been floated in 2003 during the proceedings of the European Convention that drafted the EU constitutional treaty. The EEAS is therefore an element of the reform package involving institutions responsible for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), an element crucial to the success of these reforms. They entail eliminating national presidencies in foreign policy, appointing a permanent European Council chair and strengthening the mandate of the High Representative for the CFSP by making him or her to be the European Commission Vice President responsible for external relations.2 Although several years had passed since the Intergovernmental Conference adopted the constitutional treaty, many politicians, diplomats and officials in EU member states remained oblivious to the implications of the EEAS’s establishment.