As the financial crisis recedes and the EU regains a measure of internal stability, pressure in Europe’s neighborhood is on the rise. Crisis in Ukraine and turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa have brought foreign policy to the top of the EU’s agenda. Whether the EU can make its external action more effective will depend on institutional decisions made in 2014.
In the run-up to EU-wide elections, Carnegie Europe hosted an event to launch visiting scholar Stefan Lehne’s latest paper, “A Window of Opportunity to Upgrade EU Foreign Policy.” The paper analyses the current state of the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty’s foreign policy reforms and examines how the decisions on a new EU leadership team and the recomposition of the European Commission can help achieve a more coherent and comprehensive foreign policy.
Lehne was joined by David O’Sullivan, chief operating officer at the European External Action Service. Daniel Keohane, research director at FRIDE, moderated.
Stefan Lehne
Stefan Lehne is a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels, where his research focuses on the post–Lisbon Treaty development of the European Union’s foreign policy, with a specific focus on relations between the EU and member states.
David O’Sullivan
David O’Sullivan is the chief operating officer of the European External Action Service. He previously served as director general for trade at the European Commission, and was secretary general of the European Commission from 2000 to 2005.
Daniel Keohane
Daniel Keohane is research director at FRIDE, a Madrid-based think tank focusing on global action. Keohane’s research areas include geopolitics, EU foreign and defense policies, U.S. foreign policy, and NATO.