European Union Diplomacy: From Dream to Reality

Seminar: Presentation of the book European External Action Service: Promoting Coherence through Autonomy and Coordination (Dr Mauro Gatti, Brill 2016)

Introduced by:

Ramses Wessel (Professor of International and European Law & Governance, University of Twente)

Discussants:

Vlad Constantinesco (Emeritus Professor of European law, University of Strasbourg)

José Fernando Costa Pereira(European External Action Service, Adviser at MD Africa)

Ricardo da Silva Passos(Judge at the General Court of the European Union)

Stephan Marquardt (European External Action Service, Deputy Head of Legal Affairs Division)

Moderator:

Eleftheria Neframi (Professor of European law, University of Luxembourg)

Abstract:

European countries are increasingly confronted with external threats, such as the growth of terrorism, the assertiveness of Russia, and the probable disengagement of the United States. These threats require a common response; yet, the creation of a common European foreign policy has for a long time appeared as a utopia. Such an accomplishment may have become less unrealistic, since the European Union set up its own foreign ministry – the European External Action Service (EEAS) – which took charge of the Union’s ‘embassies’. The EEAS is largely expected to increase the unity and effectiveness of the EU on the international scene. However, the EEAS is faced with an obstacle: European foreign policies are fragmented in a myriad of separate external actions, at the national and European level. It may be wondered whether the EEAS is capable to reduce this fragmentation and to enable the Union to speak with one voice. The publication of the book European External Action Service: Promoting Coherence through Autonomy and Coordination (Brill, 2016),by Mauro Gatti, provides for an occasion to discuss these issues.

Ramses A. Wessel is Professor of International and European Law and Governance and Co-Director of the Centre for European Studies at the University of Twente, The Netherlands. He is Vice Rector (Dean of Educational Innovation) of the University and former Dean of the School of Management and Governance. He wrote and co-edited several books, including EU External Relations Law (CUP, 2014), Judicial Decisions of International Organizations (OUP, 2016) and The European Union and International Dispute Settlement (Hart, 2017).

Vlad Constantinesco is Emeritus Professor at the University of Strasbourg and has been Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges and Natolin. He is honorary Professor of the Colegio Mayor Nuestra Senora del Rosario (Bogotà) and doctor honoris causa of the Universities of Bucharest, Cluj, Freiburg and Lausanne. He has published numerous works on EU law and constitutional law including Compétences et pouvoirs dans les Communautés européennes: contribution à l'étude de la nature juridique des Communautés (LGDJ, 1974) and Droit constitutionnel (Thémis, 2016, 7th ed.).

José Fernando Costa Pereira is Policy Adviser at the Managing-Directorate Africa of the European External Action Service. He was previously Head of the pan-Africa division of the EEAS and Head of the Africa Unit of the EU Council Secretariat. He has also served in the Portuguese government, in positions such as Deputy Head of Mission for the Embassy of Portugal in Washington, DC, Deputy Head of Mission for the Portuguese Embassy in Tokyo, Director for European Bilateral Affairs and Director of Human Rights.

Ricardo da Silva Passos is Judge at the EU General Court since September 2016. He was previously Director of Institutional and Parliamentary Affairs in the Legal Service of the European Parliament, Member of the Secretariat of the Convention on the Future of Europe and Head of Division in the Secretariat of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens’ Rights of the European Parliament.

Stephan Marquardt is Deputy Head of the Legal Affairs Division of the European External Action Service. Previously, he was legal adviser of the EU Delegation to the UN in New York and legal adviser in the Legal Service of the EU Council. He acted as agent of the Council in many proceedings before the EU Courts and is the author of several publications on EU institutional and external relations law.

Mauro Gatti is research associate at the University of Luxembourg. He was formerly adjunct professor and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bologna and instructor at the China-EU School of Law (Beijing). He received a PhD in EU law from the University of Bologna and the University of Strasbourg in 2013. He recently published European External Action Service: Promoting Coherence through Autonomy and Coordination (Brill, 2016).

http://wwwfr.uni.lu/fdef/actualites/european_union_diplomacy_from_dream_to_reality