European External Action Service

Introduction

External European action service ensures that there is strong cooperation between the European Union and European Union members on matters of foreign affairs and policy. This is done through the influence of the civil servants of both the European Union and European countries, where they establish a living link. External European action service has helped European Union to be stable on matters of foreign affairs and thus many countries have aspired to join the European Union. This has made the number of European Union members to rise where currently they are more than 28 (Brierly and Clapham 142).

To strengthen the European Union, make it more efficient, make its projects more interesting and give it more profile, there was the need for the establishment of an External European Action Service (EEAS). According to the Treaty of Lisbon signed in 2007, the establishment of EEAS was to be carried out by a high representative council after consulting European parliament. Following this, on 25th march 2010 high representatives’ council sent a proposal for the establishment of EEAS to European Parliament.

Relation to European Union Countries

The main aim why the external European action service was made is to enhance European Union global functions. It was created to make broad functions of European Union more Efficient and that is the base which creates the functions of the external European service action. The external European action service performs presidency and diplomatic functions. In the presidential role, the body assists the President of the European Council to carry out his responsibilities on foreign issues. In its diplomatic service, external European action service supports a High representative who is also the vice president of the European commission (Eeckhout, 94).

Functions of external European action service

The external European action service is facing another main challenge of competition between the institutions. During the formation of external action service, the main bodies that were involved were the council and member state. Their main aim was to make external operations of the European Union effective. Other institutions took it as a plan to bring inter-institution competition. This attitude makes it difficult for the External action to operate because other institutions perform their duties with the aim of competition and thus they cannot agree with the decisions of the external European action service (Blocksman and Steven 23).

More has to be done to increase authority and capacity of the external European action service in its operations. One, chairperson of the working groups of the external action should be permanently appointed other than the current system where the chair is rotational. The capacity of external European action service in handling major European Union policies should be increased. The policies that should be considered are; struggle against terrorism, energy security and environment among other policies (Boening et. al, 33).

Challenges external European action service face

External European action service maintains a good neighborhood relation with other countries. Most of the countries who border the European Union are undergoing a political change. Under the policy of neighborhood, the external European action service works hard to ensure a solid union with those countries in the process of easing political transitions in those countries.

Integration is the key challenge that the external European action service is facing today. The body was formed recently and is still struggling to integrate bodies of the European Union which they work hand in hand for global role achievement. For example, the security and defense body has its decision making council, this council decision contradicts the decisions of the external European action service and thus they fail to agree on any issue. The efforts of the external European Union to integrate these bodies end up fruitless because of lack of teamwork between the organs of the European Union (waele et. al, 251).

With discussions, negotiations, and consideration of various concerns, EEAS was approved for establishment by European government on 8 July 2010.

The policy and planning capability of external European action service should be strengthened. This will enable the body to be more efficient on strategic issues and paper work planning. The external European action service should be provided with the necessary resources for it to function well this should be done after the staffing level review has been done. All this recommendation will ensure that the external European action service is efficient in its work. This will be an advantage to the European Union (Morgera 64).

The external European action service is responsible for coordinating the ministries of development and defense. From a development perspective, the external European action service plays a role of shaping strategy and programming development collaboration all over the word. The body combines the technical experts of the European commissions and the council’s political weight in the process of enhancing European Union role all over the world. On the side of defense, the body works under the European Union where they provide military support all over the word in the peace keeping process under the European Union policy of common security and defense (Austermann 70).

In conclusion, we have discussed the functions, challenges, recommendations and relation of external European action service in this ease and we have seen that this organization is one of the strongholds of the European Union. The global picture of the European Union is reflected by this body and since the formation of the European action service the performance of the European Union has improved. More research on how this organization can be entrusted with more power and ways to solve the institution competition should be done. This will enable it to be more efficient in its operations.

References

Eeckhout, Piet. Eu External Relations Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print.

Waele, Henri C. F. J. A, and Jan-Jaap Kuipers. The European Union’s Emerging International Identity: Views from the Global Arena., 2013. Print.

Boening, Astrid, Jan-Frederik Kremer, and Aukje. Loon. Global Power Europe: Volume 1. Berlin: Springer, 2013. Internet resource.

Brierly, J L, and Andrew Clapham. Brierly’s Law of Nations: An Introduction to the Role of International Law in International Relations., 2012. Print.

Blockmans, Steven. Fit for Purpose? The European External Action Service One Year on. Oxford: Oxfam GB, 2012. Print.

Austermann, Frauke. European Union Delegations in Eu Foreign Policy: A Diplomatic Service of Different Speeds., 2014. Internet resource.

Morgera, Elisa. The External Environmental Policy of the European Union: Eu and International Law Perspectives., 2012. Print.