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The external relations of the EU comprise numerous and very different policies: Common Foreign and Security Policy/ European Security and Defence Policy, relations to other countries or regions like the EU’s policy towards the US, Russia, China as well as relations towards Africa, Latin-America, South or East Asia (ASEAN), European Neighbourhood Policy, trade, international environmental or energy policy etc. With the decisions taken at the Council meetings of Cologne and Helsinki in 1999 and the Nice Treaty as well as the still pending Lisbon Treaty integration in external relations has gained momentum and ambitious claims for a unified foreign and security policy, a refined ‘actorness’ and ‘presence’ of the Union in its external relations have be part an parcel of many member states’ politician as well as of representatives of the Council or the Commission. What has been accomplished since 1999 in terms of success and failure, effectiveness and efficiency of the EU’s external relations in general? Can we talk about an actual “European Foreign Policy”? What is the state of institutionalization in the realm of external relations in the EU? What problems influence the performance of the EU and which factors account for more or less success or failure across policy fields?
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