The European External Action Service and agenda-setting in European foreign policy

Abstract

The new High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR) and the European External Action Service (EEAS) have emerged after the Lisbon Treaty as a potential driving force in European foreign policy. This article critically reviews the first two years of the existence of the EEAS to find out whether these new players have managed to shape the direction of the European Union's (EU) external activities. Building on a typology of agenda-setting strategies in the EU developed by Princen (2011), it successively examines how the HR and the EEAS have been trying to ‘build credibility’ and ‘to gain attention’ for their priorities. The empirical analysis shows that priority has been given to addressing the ‘credibility challenge’, with a particular emphasis on capacity-building. The strategies of mobilizing partners and arousing interest through framing still leave scope for improvement.

Keywords:

• Agenda-setting
• European Foreign Policy
• European External Action Service
• High Representative

Notes

The authors used secondary literature, documentary analysis and empirical evidence obtained from twelve semi-structured interviews with 14 officials, conducted in Brussels at the end of 2011 and in 2012. The officials were based in the EEAS, in national Permanent Representations to the European Union and in the European Commission. All interviews were coded and are anonymous.

For a verbatim report of the hearing on 11 January 2010, see http://www.europarl.europa.eu/hearings/static/commissioners/cre/ashton.pdf, accessed 2 June 2012.

Here, we refer to the formal arrangements as envisaged by the Treaty and the legal right of the HR to propose actions. However, as will be shown later in the article, in practice the role of HR is not as autonomous as it could be derived from the Treaty text and the HR's power to launch initiatives and implement policies is shared with the Commission and the member states.

To give three examples, she was criticized for not flying to Haiti after the earthquake (January 2010); for visiting Ukraine instead of attending an informal meeting of EU defence ministers (February 2010); and for missing the EU–Morocco summit in Granada.

The F3 Unit in the Secretariat General of the Commission hosts the PSC Representative and the Commission's member of the Nicolaides group.

See http://www.europarl.europa.eu/hearings/static/commissioners/cre/ashton.pdf, accessed 2 June 2012.

See http://www.nieuwsbank.nl/en/2010/07/11/H002.htm, accessed 2 June 2012.