Paper Titles & Abstracts

The creation of the European External Action Service (EEAS) is one of the most important innovations introduced by the Lisbon Treaty in order to improve the effectiveness, consistency and visibility of the Union on the international stage. However, in practice tensions between EU and some Member States have arisen very soon as to EU representation in international organisations. Also, the post-Lisbon co-existence of the Commission and EEAS has been far from pacific in the external representation before third states and multilateral fora. The dispute has its origins in differences in how Treaty provisions are interpreted by Member States, the European Commission and the EEAS. In order to resolve the dispute internal arrangements have been agreed between the actors involved for preparing EU positions, and declarations in international organisations. The aim of this paper is to examine to what extend the internal agreements developed so far have managed to improve the EU external representation in international organisations.