Revisiting the Lisbon Treaty's Constitutional Design of EU External Relations

Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies Working Paper No. 119

27 Pages Posted: 11 Sep 2013

See all articles by Jan Wouters

Jan Wouters

KU Leuven - Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies

Thomas Ramopoulos

KU Leuven - Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies

Date Written: September 1, 2013

Abstract

The Lisbon Treaty is the result of a long gestation period that started out with extraordinary ambitions but was ultimately stunted by political constraints. One of the major and most visible goals of this reform has been to instil greater coherence in EU external action. In order to achieve this, the drafters of the Treaty attempted to integrate the different parts of EU external action. This effort was only partly successful. Although it allowed for improved coherence, effectiveness and continuity in EU external action, this could only occur if the EU institutions and the Member States were able to manage to garner the political will. In this Working Paper, we argue that the current text of the Treaties carries a largely untapped potential for non-negligible improvements in the exercise of Union action abroad. By revisiting the constitutional design of the Lisbon Treaty, this paper attempts to reveal this potential. It also analyses the political constraints, both in the process that led to Lisbon and in the implementation of the new text of the Treaties.

Keywords: European Union, EU External Relations, HR/VP, European External Action Service, coherence in EU external action

Suggested Citation

Wouters, Jan and Ramopoulos, Thomas, Revisiting the Lisbon Treaty's Constitutional Design of EU External Relations (September 1, 2013). Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies Working Paper No. 119, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2324079 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2324079

Jan Wouters (Contact Author)

KU Leuven - Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies ( email )

House De Dorlodot - Deberiotstraat 34
Leuven, B-3000
Belgium

HOME PAGE: http://www.globalgovernancestudies.eu

Thomas Ramopoulos

KU Leuven - Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies ( email )

Van Evenstraat 2B
Charles Deberiotstraat 34
Leuven, B-3000
Belgium

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