The European External Action Service

This paper takes as its starting-point the assumption that the Lisbon Treaty will be ratified in its present form, at least as far as the provisions relating to the High Representative and the External Service are concerned. However, an External Service along the lines envisaged by the Lisbon Treaty could also be established by an Interinstitutional Agreement. The High Representative, enjoying simultaneous institutional affiliation to the Commission and the Council, could not. A new model for the co-ordination of the Union’s external policies, which would not depend upon the double personal affiliation of the new High Representative, might be sought. The paper contends that it would be surprising if in the medium term an External Service very much along the lines of that foreshadowed by the Lisbon Treaty were not part of the Union’s response to its foreign policy challenges.