The European External Action Service and national foreign ministries. Convergence or divergence?

Based on extensive empirical work by a cross-European group of researchers, this book assesses the impact of the creation of the European External Action Service (EEAS) on the national foreign policy-making processes and institutions of the EU member states. As such, the contributions cover both the involvement of the national diplomatic and foreign policy actors in shaping the outlook of the EEAS and its mission, as well as the changes (or not) it has produced for those actors of the member states. The analysis draws in theoretical frameworks from Europeanisation and socialisation, but also from intergovernmental frameworks of policy-making within the European Union.

This book is much needed, especially in an era when the EU is trying to pull its weight in the international sphere (e.g. Syria, Iran, the Arab Spring, Chinese relations and emerging powers) but also at a time when the EU is trying to recalibrate its institutional structure in light of the current financial predicaments and questions on the democratic legitimacy of the European project.

Contents:

Introduction - Rosa Balfour, Caterina Carta and Kristi Raik

Part I: The EEAS and National Diplomacies as Part of Global and European Structures
1. Europe’s changing place in the world and challenges to European diplomacy - Richard Whitman
2. Change and continuity: a decade of evolution of EU foreign policy and the creation of the European External Action Service - Rosa Balfour
3. At the centre of coordination: staff, resources and procedures in the European External Action Service and in the delegations - Christian Lequesne
4. Inside the European External Action Service’s institutional sinews: an institutional and organizational analysis - Caterina Carta and Simon Duke

Part II: National Diplomacies Shaping and Being Shaped by the EEAS
5. ‘Our man in Brussels’. The UK and the EEAS: ambivalence and influence - Daniel Fiott
6. France: between national grandeur and European commitment - Fabien Terpan
7. Germany: the instinctive integrationist occasionally going intergovernmental - Cornelius Adebahr
8. Spain and Italy: the ‘Europeanization’ strategies of two middle powers - Andrea Frontini, Salvador Llaudes, Ignacio Molina and Alicia Sorroza
9. Portugal and the Netherlands: punching above their weight? - Laura C. Ferreira-Pereira, Alena Vysotskaya G. Vieira and Louise van Schaik
10. Cases of cautious optimism: Sweden, Poland and the EEAS - Grzegorz Gromadzki, Jakob Lewander, Sara Norrevik and Mark Rhinard
11. Greece and Slovenia: national diplomacies with limited means - Ruby Gropas, Sabina Kajnč Lange and George Tzogopoulos
12. The Czech Republic, Estonia and Finland: European vocation re-confirmed? - Vít Beneš and Kristi Raik

Conclusions: adaptation to the EU or to the changing global context? - Rosa Balfour, Caterina Carta and Kristi Raik