Transcript Foreign and defence policies

European Union
Politics
Chapter 21 :
External Relations
Margaux Bia
Alicia Dutrannoit
Catarina Deraedt
Caroline van der Rest
The EU is an important
actor on the world stage…
Why?
- Its size,
- Its resources,
- And its ability to act in a united or at least
coordinated manner.
There are four mains aspects to the
EU's external relations :
– Trade;
– Foreign, security and defence;
– Development;
– The external dimension of internal
policies.
§1) External Trade
The Member States of the EU…
- Form a united front to the world;
- Act as one to contract trade
agreements;
- Have a unified internal market.
Trade Policies
• Liberal trade policy
• But - « special » national economic
circumstances and political pressure
- damaging consequences
 Lack of uniformity.
Trade and tradedominated agreements
Wide range of agreements of different forms:
• Some are part of the EU's development cooperation
policies
• Some are not and can be distinguished in three main
types:
o
o
Trade agreements : art. 207 TFEU
Trade and economic cooperation agreements : Combination of article 207 TFEU
and another article.
o Association agreements : 217 TFEU.
 Aim: Open market access and varied forms of
cooperation
Policy Processes
• Trade Agreements were the responsibility
of the Commission and the Council.
• NOW, the Lisbon Treaty increased the role
of the EP in the decision-making process.
• Consequences:
– Ordinary legislative procedure is used;
– EP = co-decision maker;
– EP has greater powers to negociate and
contract agreements;
– EP's consent is needed;
– Various tensions between the EU
institutions.
§2) Foreign and defence
policies
• Resources and problems with their usage
• The evolution of the EU's foreign and
defence policy
• Policy aims
• Policy instruments
• Policy processes
Resources and problems
with their usage
Disposal of considerable resources and need of and
effective use
 obligation for the Member States to try to act in
common whenever possible
BUT difficulty for the EU to maximize its potential :
- intergovernmental base
- unanimity requirement
 much of the EU’s foreign and defence policy
potential is unrealised
 EU = “soft” international power
The evolution of the EU's
foreign and defence policy
a) Foreign policy
• MS cooperated with one another
• Economic giant and political pygmy  situation changed
• Five factors have stimulated this change:
- Ending of the Cold War and collapse of communism
- German reunification
- Gulf War
- Break-up of Yugoslavia and EU's response to it
- Treaties have provided for advances in EPC
b) Defence policy
• Difficult area in which to develop EU inter-state
cooperation
HOWEVER engagement in these policies for the
last 20 years :
- early 1990s : tentative
- end of the 1990s : reliance on the USA
and need for a greater EU independent
capability
- 1998 : breaktrough with the Franco-British
Summit
• 3 types of policy : Soft security policy, Hard security
policy and Defence policy
Policy aims
• Aims are based on general guiding principles
• Particular focus on cultivating cooperative and
stable relations with neighbouring states
• Creation of European Neighbourhood Policy
(ENP)
• ENP's aim = place the EU's bilateral relations
with its neighbours within a more coherent and
ordered framework
Policy instruments
Common strategies, joint actions and
common positions + Art. 25 many
instruments
BUT mostly informal
Policy processes
• CFSP has never been part of the « EU mainstream »
• CFSP policy processes have displayed 3 main distinctive
features :
- strong role of Commission + the jurisdiction of the EU's
Courts not extended to the CFSP
- QMV available in the Council + role of the EP restricted
- CFSP has its own distinctive instiutional position
The European Council
• responsible for the overall direction of the CFSP
• Pronounces on foreign policy issues of current concern
The Council of Ministers
= very heart of CFSP processes
1. The Foreign Affairs Council
= meeting between Foreign ministers
chaired by the High Representative
 main decision-making body of the CFSP
2. The Committee of Permanent Representatives
3. The Political and Security Committee
4. The Correspondents’ Group
5. Working groups
The High Representative of the Union for
Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
• 2 main institutional limitations of this post :
o Commission continued to have an External Relations
Commissioner  uncertainties regarding leadership
+ responsibilities
o No independent powers
• Attempt to tackle these problems :
merging of the posts into « High
Representative of the Union for Foreign
Affairs and Security Policy »
• Institutional position is complex
The Commission
• «fully associated» in the foreign policy field
BUT intergovernmental nature of the field
 Commission’s position is weakened
 internal organisational changes
• Strengthened position thanks to the Lisbon
Treaty
The European Parliament
• Only role in CFSP decision-making is during the
budgetary procedure
Embassies, delegations and missions
Undermined role because of rapid
international travel and communications
§3) Development Policy
Policy content
• Primary objective: reduction and eradication of poverty (art. 208
TFEU + 2005 Consensus on Development and its 8 MDGs).
• Reasons for the EU’s engagement in development policy are
threefold: historical, moral and economic.
• Available forms of assistance to the developing world in general:
1) Generalised preferences: preferential trading access to the
EU market,
2) Food aid,
3) Emergency aid,
4) Aid to non-governmental organisations,
+ Cooperation agreements (Cotonou Partnership Agreement of
2000, with 79 ACP countries).
Policy processes
Varying actors and procedures:
• Actors: - Foreign Affairs Counil
- Commissioner for Development
- Development DG (Directorate General)
- EP Committee on Development
- Diplomatic missions of developing countries in Brussels, accredited to
the EU
- EU delegation in developing countries
• Decision-making procedures: Depend on the type of decision.
- Declaration or Resolution (moves at its own pace)
- Trade-only agreement (art. 207: QMV, EP)
- Cooperation or association agreement (QMV or unanimity, EP)
§4) The external Dimension of
Internal Policies
• Many internal policies have significant external
dimensions
• Theory of the implied external powers (associated with
the principle of “parallelism” (power of negotiation and
conclusion of international agreements): art. 216 TFEU)
• EU is well prepared for negotiations with third parties,
and is thus often able to exert a significant external
policy influence in internal policy areas.
The Consistency and
Representational Problems
• Ensuring consistency in the different areas of external
relations is fundamental and has been a major problem.
• Reasons why it can be difficult to ensure consistency:
- Great spread of the EU’s external relations’ interests and activities;
- Diversity of actors and processes involved;
- Differing powers of the EU (particularly when shared competences);
- Conflicting orientations and preferences of MS;
- Varying levels of EU policy development.
• Procedures, mechanisms and arrangements exist to try
and maximise consistency:
- Ex: coordinating structure in the Commission (Commissioners’
Relex Group; Directors General Relex Group; Inter-service groups)
- High Representative post, introduced by art. 21 TFEU
Concluding Remarks
 The EU is a partially constructed international actor:
 Major influence in respect of trade policy;
 Significant influence in terms of development, environment and other
policies;
 Modest but growing influence in respect of foreign and defence
policies.
 Central question: will the EU advance from being a modest
player to becoming a major player in the foreign and defence
policy fields?
 Requirement of a stronger collective political will;
 No pessimism: insurmountable barriers have been removed in
recent years…
Thank you for your attention !