European Union Politics

1
European Union Politics

• Chapter 21 External Relations
• Margaux Bia
• Alicia Dutrannoit
• Catarina Deraedt
• Caroline van der Rest

2
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.

3

• There are four mains aspects to the EU's external
  relations
• Trade
• Foreign, security and defence
• Development
• The external dimension of internal policies.

4
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.

5
Trade Policies

• Liberal trade policy
• But - special national economic circumstances
  and political pressure
• - damaging consequences
• ? Lack of uniformity.

6
Trade and trade-dominated 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
• Trade agreements art. 207 TFEU
• Trade and economic cooperation agreements
  Combination of article 207 TFEU and another
  article.
• Association agreements 217 TFEU.
• ? Aim Open market access and varied forms of
  cooperation

7
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.

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• 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.

9
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

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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 EUs foreign and defence policy
  potential is unrealised
• ? EU soft international power

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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

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• 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

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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

14
Policy instruments

• Common strategies, joint actions and common
  positions Art. 25 many instruments
• BUT mostly informal

15
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 

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• The European Council
• responsible for the overall direction of the CFSP
  
• Pronounces on foreign policy issues of current
  concern

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• 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

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• The High Representative of the Union for Foreign
  Affairs and Security Policy
• 2 main institutional limitations of this post
• Commission continued to have an External
  Relations Commissioner ? uncertainties regarding
  leadership responsibilities
• No independent powers

19

• 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

20

• The Commission
• fully associated in the foreign policy field
• BUT intergovernmental nature of the field
• ? Commissions position is weakened
• ? internal organisational changes
• Strengthened position thanks to the Lisbon
  Treaty

21

• The European Parliament
• Only role in CFSP decision-making is during the
  budgetary procedure

22

• Embassies, delegations and missions
• Undermined role because of rapid international
  travel and communications

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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 EUs 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).

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• 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)

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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.

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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 EUs 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.

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• 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

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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

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• Thank you for your attention !