Paper Titles & Abstracts

The role of the EEAS in EU foreign policy has been the subject of fervent debate since its establishment on 26 July 2010. This paper applies the principal-agent model to examine the discretion of the EEAS vis-à-vis the EU member states in EU-Moldova relations. Moldova has deepened its relations with the EU at the political, economic and people-to-people levels to a greater degree than the other partner countries of the Eastern Partnership. The negotiations between the EU and Moldova on the Association Agreement, the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area and visa liberalisation are ongoing processes. While the EEAS is in charge of negotiations on political association, it does not lead in the areas of free trade and visa free travel, with the Commission's Directorate-General for Trade and the Directorate-General for Home Affairs, respectively, playing a greater role in these processes. Moreover, with the enactment of the Treaty of Lisbon, the European Parliament increased its competences in the areas covered by the EEAS and the European Commission and the European Parliament function as institutional checks with regard to the EEAS. The EU member states monitor and control the EEAS' action through the relevant Council structures. The paper finds that the checks and balances applied by the EU institutions and the control exercised by the member states considerably limit the EEAS' discretion in EU-Moldova relations. Besides applying the principal-agent model, the original empirical research of this paper contributes to the understanding of the EU's post-Lisbon foreign policy institutional architecture.