European Commission Delegations and EU Public Policy: Stakeholders’ Perceptions from the Asia-Pacific

Abstract. This paper scrutinizes the role of the European Commission Delegations (ECDs) in their contribution to the EU’s public diplomacy efforts. With the ECDs’ personnel being posted to 136 countries and territories, delegations naturally play a vital role in the promotion of the EU. This role becomes all the more important in some third countries, where the delegation might be the only permanent representative of the EU or its Member States, and could be logically seen as ‘test labs’ for the European External Action Service proposed by the Lisbon Treaty. Drawing on 242 face-to-face stakeholders’ interviews conducted from 2003 until 2008 in ten Asia-Pacific locations, this paper attempts to identify third-party perspectives on how the ECDs could increase their effectiveness worldwide. It develops suggestions intended to maximize the ECDs’ public diplomacy impact in the Asia-Pacific region and, consequently, to reinforce an image of EU solidarity around the world.