Publication

The enactment of the Lisbon Treaty raised the level of expectation regarding the EU’s role on the global stage to a new high. One of the major institutional innovations, the European External Action Service (EEAS) was expected to put right a whole series of problems that have beset EU foreign policy for years. In the case of the Eastern Partnership multilateral framework, the EEAS is closely monitored and tightly ‘controlled’ by the member states and a multiplicity of actors at national, European and intergovernmental level. The mode of decision-making thus places a substantial number of brakes on the discretionary power of the EEAS. Any responsible analysis or critique of the service should therefore take these constraints into consideration.