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Abstract
The creation of the European External Action Service (EEAS) has a significant impact not only on European foreign policy-making, but also, more widely, on the transformation of the European political order, and represents a further step in the evolution of a European administrative space. Analysing the EEAS as an instance of European administrative space will inform on the shape of the Euro-polity, in that more independent European administrative capacities in area of core state-powers could be interpreted as an indicator for a shift of the EU’s political order. Based on direct observation, document analysis and expert interviews with EEAS officials, the paper presents a first overview of the outcomes of this capacity-building exercise, suggests a comprehensive conceptual framework for analysis and concludes that the EEAS can be seen as an instance of the European administrative space.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers as well as his colleagues from the University of Agder, notably Jarle Trondal and Stefan Gänzle for their valuable comments.
Notes
1. These will be explained in more detail below and in the table on page 5.
2. See also Van Vooren (Citation2010, 26): ‘Where the EEAS Council Decision foresees that the EU’s Diplomatic Service will have a legal department, its role is unlikely to be one of litigation before the ECJ. (Art. 4.3b EEAS Decision).’
3. Legal personality has however been granted to the EU as a whole under the Lisbon Treaty.
4. These are the Political and Security Committee Chair, the Committee for Civilian Aspects of Crisis Management, the EU Military Committee, EU Military Staff, Crisis Management and Planning Directorate and the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capacity (CPCC).
5. Dated 01 January 2011, issued by the Secretariat General, Directorate F, External Institutional Relations, of the Commission, revised 13 January 2012 as ‘Working Arrangements between Commission Services and the EEAS in Relation to External Relations Issues’, SEC (2012) 48.
6. With the exception of the European Development Fund (EDF), which is directly funded by the MS.
7. See: ‘Commission still pulls the strings on EU foreign policy’, EU Observer, 6 February 2012, at: http://euobserver.com/18/115,145; and ECDPM Talking Points, Spotlight on division of labour between the EEAS and DG Devco, 3 February 2012 online at: http://www.ecdpm-talkingpoints.org/division-of-labour-between-the-eeas-and-dg-devco/.
8. See the letter from 12 Member States to the HR/VP, December 2011.
9. Final Report of the Future of Europe Group of the Foreign Ministers of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain, dated 17 September 2012.
10. See: Council, EU Diplomatic Representation in third countries — First half of 2012’, Doc. 18,975/1/11, REV 1, 11/01/2012.
11. HR/VP Decision of 15 June 2011 On the Security Rules for the European External Action Service, OJ C304, 15/10/2011 pp.0007–0011.
12. See the Minutes from the First Meeting of the EEAS Security Committee, Brussels 21st September 2011, CHAR, Jenkins-conference room.
13. Cathy Ashton, in the press after the EP-vote on the EEAS, 8 July 2010: ‘I want a lean and efficient Service that assures best value for money, staffed by the best and the brightest from across the European Union.’ Online at: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/115736.pdf.
14. See EEAS Review, released by the HR/VP in July 2013, in particular the short-term recommendations 15–19, at: http://eeas.europa.eu/library/publications/2013/3/2013_eeas_review_en.pdf, p.17.