Research Papers

Setting up a European diplomatic corps has been a series of more or less disconnected attempts of the European Union to produce one common European voice on the international foreign policy scene. However, the Lisbon Treaty seems to be providing a proper finale: the European External Action Service (EEAS). The paper argues that despite a general silence during the Lisbon treaty negotiations about the issue, the birth of the EEAS is one of the most significant institutional innovations coming out of Lisbon. Not only might the EEAS potentially make a difference in representing the Union’s interests in the world, for instance vis-à-vis the United States, but also can shake up the balance between the three most important EU bodies: the Council, Commission and Parliament. Because the EEAS is no longer a part of any of these “big three”, it has a potential to assert itself as an independent “fourth” EU institution. Rooted in institutionalist analysis, the paper examines the establishment of the EEAS. However, the paper will also examine practical aspects of institution-building, such as issues of personnel, staff structure and appointments, the upgraded role of EU delegations abroad and will include personal insights of the author from her work for the EEAS during the first months of the its existence. The paper will primarily draw on formal and informal interviews and meetings between the author and EU officials and diplomats who have been involved in creating the EEAS in the months after the Lisbon Treaty was ratified and entered into force in December 2009 and will cover the official and unofficial documents from the same period. Although it is not clear yet whether the final diplomatic service will be as successful as hoped for, the paper will conclude with several hypotheses how the future for EEAS might evolve.