This groundbreaking new textbook offers extensive coverage of EU External Action studies, from its major concepts to the key theories in the field. Over the past decades, the European Union has progressively developed into a significant global actor in an increasing number of policy fields. This long-awaited volume looks into different ways of conceptualizing the EU as a global actor, the processes and impact of EU external action, explanations offered by IR and integration theories, the discursive, normative, practice and gender 'turns', and the 'decentring agenda' for EU external action. The book offers a reader-friendly guidance on these various ways in which to study the EU as a global actor: each chapter introduces one concept, approach or theory and illustrates its application by a case study of EU external action. In drawing the different perspectives together, the book underscores that 'EU External Action Studies' is becoming an academic speciality in its own right. Written by leading experts, the volume will make essential reading for students, scholars and practitioners of EU external action. EU External Action Studies nowadays attract attention from scholars and students in International Relations (IR), Foreign Policy Analysis and (interdisciplinary) EU Studies, as well as from practitioners.

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: The Lisbon Treaty introduced substantial changes in the field of the EU s external action. Firstly, many institutional innovations were introduced, most notably the high-ranking posts of the High Representative and the President of the European Council as well as Union s diplomatic service the European External Action Service. Secondly, there is an attempt to create a more unified legal order through the formal abolition of the pillar structure, the introduction of a single legal personality and the abolition of the hierarchical relationship between pillars. Finally, the Lisbon Treaty re-organised the EU s external action. With the Treaty of Lisbon entering into force, the external action of the Union encompasses the common foreign and security policy (CFSP), the common security and defence policy (CSDP), the common commercial policy (CCP), the development cooperation and economic, financial and technical cooperation with third countries. According to Article 13 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU): The Union shall ensure consistency between the different areas of its external action and between these and its other policies. Consistency in EU external relations can be seen as a multi-layered concept, consisting of variety of dimensions, intertwined with other concepts and legal obligations in the Treaty as well as a political objective of the Union. Most importantly, it is a legal requirement through which the TEU accords to the Union the general responsibility for ensuring consistency of its external action as a whole but it charges the High Representative, the Council and the Commission with ensuring the implementation of these policies each in accordance with its respective powers. The dissertation will focus on horizontal consistency as an issue in EU external action and the legal as well as political implications of the institutional innovations brought about by the Lisbon Treaty. Whereas vertical consistency applies to the relations between the Member States and the Union, horizontal consistency designates consistency on European level, either inter-policy or inter-institutional consistency. Inter-institutional horizontal consistency is responsible for omitting gaps, avoiding conflicts and ensuring there are no overlapping competences between the European institutions. It is the strive for harmony, beneficial relationship and cooperation of institutional co-existence. On the other hand, inter-policy [...]

This book questions whether the institutions and practices of the emerging EU diplomatic system conform to established standards of the state-centric diplomatic order; or whether practice is paving the way for innovative, even revolutionary, forms of diplomatic organisation.

This book provides a detailed analysis of the policy-making processes of EU strategies in foreign and security policy and external action. It uses the European Security Strategy and the EU Global Strategy to assess their policy-making dynamics both before and after the Lisbon Treaty. Inter-institutional relations in strategy-making are put into the context of current debates in European integration, questioning the assumption that the EU is a body increasingly ruled by intergovernmentalism - as reflected by the new intergovernmentalism literature. The book also provides a categorisation of EU strategies and considers them as policy-inspiration documents, acting as frameworks for policy-making. This reading of strategies lies behind the analysis of the policy-making processes of the ESS and the EUGS, unpacked into four phases: agenda-setting, policy formulation, policy output and implementation. By looking at the shifting policy-making dynamics from foreign and security policy to external action, the author sheds light on the current shape of EU integration.

This is a collection of works which considers the many different facets of the EU’s increasingly important engagement with the world beyond its borders. The Treaty of Lisbon marked a change in the powers and competences endowed on the EU - the contributions to this collection consider both the direct and indirect impact of the Treaty on the contemporary state of EU external relations. The authors are drawn from legal, political science and international relations disciplines and consider innovations or changes brought about by the Treaty itself: the European External Action Service, the roles of the High Representative and President, the collapse of the ‘pillar’ structure and new competences such as those for foreign investment. Other chapters cover developments which reflect the latest incremental changes upon which the post-Lisbon Treaty arrangements have some bearing, including the COREU network, the transatlantic and neighbourhood relations and the external dimension of ‘internal’ security. Useful for academics working in the field of EU external relations law and foreign policy, as well as the EU law/politics/European studies market more generally.

In European External Action Service, Mauro Gatti provides a legal analysis of the EU’s ‘foreign ministry’. The European External Action Service (EEAS) was created to coordinate the supranational and intergovernmental areas of EU external relations, but it is unclear whether and how it may attain this objective. Through an analysis of law and practice, Gatti demonstrates that the EEAS is capable of effectively promoting coherence in EU external relations. Although working independently from EU institutions and Member States, the EEAS can coordinate their activities at an administrative level. The EEAS is thus ideally placed to bring together EU external action instruments, including diplomatic efforts, development cooperation, and security policies.

The Lisbon Treaty modified the legal framework of EU external action and these innovations must be applied in a period of deep economic and financial crisis interacting with other more specific crises affecting the EU's external activities. This volume investigates the recent institutional and substantive developments in EU external relations law and practice in this context of multiple crises for the EU. The economic and financial crisis has a major impact on EU external action, but other crises too affect this sensitive area of the EU's activity and the book takes them into account. For instance, there is a crisis in the relationship between EU law and international law after the ECJ judgement in the Kadi case. In addition to exploring these questions, the volume also examines questions of legitimacy in fields such as foreign investment protection and arbitration. Representing the output of a powerful research team composed of leading scholars in the field this comprehensive collection will appeal to both an expert and non-expert readership.

The third edition of this book incorporates more than 10 years of fascinating dynamics since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. Apart from analysing the general basis of the Union's external action and its relationship to international law, the book explores the law and practice of the EU in more specialized fields of external action, such as common commercial policy, neighbourhood policy, development cooperation, cooperation with third countries, humanitarian aid, external environmental policy, and common foreign and security policy, as well as EU sanctions. Five years after the second edition published, this fully updated edition contains major developments within the law itself, along with changes and restructuring of the themes within the book. Carefully selected primary documents are accompanied with analytic commentary on the issues they raise and their significance for the overall structure of EU external relations law. The primary materials selected include many important legal documents that are hard to find elsewhere but give a vital insight into the operation of EU external relations law in practice.

The creation of the European External Action Service (EEAS) is one of the most significant changes introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon. Often referred to as the EU's 'Diplomatic Service', it is aimed at enabling greater coherence and efficiency in EU's external action. On 1 December 2010 the EEAS started its work. Over the past three years, the EEAS has been variously criticised. Considering the uncertainties about the division of labour and responsibilities, some of the criticism is justified. Albeit, it will require more than a few bureaucratic changes to make the EEAS to speak with one voice. This book attempts not only to focus on the shortcomings concerning the implementation of the EEAS but it also reflects on the added values of the service. For academics and practitioners alike, Dialer, Neisser and Opitz provide a balanced and fine-grained account of the role and functions of the EEAS and invite their readers to further discuss and research on this topic.

This book offers a conceptualisation of unintended consequences and addresses a set of common research questions, highlighting the nature (what), the causes (why), and the modes of management (how) of unintended consequences of the European Union’s (EU) external action. The chapters in the book engage with conceptual and empirical dimensions of the topic, as well as scholarly and policy implications thereof. They do so by looking at EU external action across various policy domains (including trade, migration, development, state-building, democracy promotion, and rule of law reform) and geographic areas (including the USA, Russia, the Western Balkans, the southern and eastern European neighbourhood, and Africa). The book contributes to the study of the EU as an international actor by broadening the notion of its impact abroad to include the unintended consequences of its (in)actions and by shedding new light on the conceptual paradigms that explain EU external action. This book fills the gap in IR and EU scholarship concerning unintended consequences in an international context and will be of interest to anyone studying this important phenomenon. It was originally published as a special issue of The International Spectator (Italian Journal of International Affairs). Chapters 1, 3, 7, 8 and 9 are available Open Access at https://www.routledge.com/products/9780367346492.