Timeframe: 2010-2013
Project manager: Christophe Hillion

The Lisbon Treaty introduces profound institutional and substantive changes in the functioning of the EU in general, and on the way in which it interacts with the rest of the world, in particular.

Building upon past Sieps research on the EU role on the international stage, the present project intends to map out and decrypt those changes, and assess their possible implications on some of the Union’s key external policies.

More specifically, the research will analyse the modifications brought about by the new Treaty as regards EU external competence and capacity, and their impact on the international posture of individual Member States like Sweden.

It will also evaluate the extent to which the new regime succeeds (or not) in making the Union a more credible and efficient player on the international scene, by enhancing the coherence of its external action.

Also, questions of democratic and judicial control as well as questions of accountability of the Union’s enhanced external action, will be considered. Three complementary research clusters are envisaged to address those questions:

1) New institutional framework of EU external action
2) New EU external competence
3) Coherence and effectiveness of EU external action