The new architecture of the EU CFSP after the treaty of Lisbon and its implications on the South Caucasus

Abstract

By creating a common foreign policy the European Union stands to maximize its influence in international relations, in much the same fashion as it has done with its common economic policies. European integrationists imagine the EU becoming a major global power, “speaking with one voice”, substantially increasing its political clout. As a major power, the EU may challenge global actors, trying to stabilize the current world politics and offer a real alternative on the global scene. However, the EU member states’ unwillingness to give up national sovereignty, along with their own individual foreign policy interests, orientations, traditions, and histories, is a hindrance for further development. Achieving global superpower status is most unlikely, but the EU can still make great strides in the area of foreign affairs. Yet the pitfalls of the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) are diverse and treacherous. This master’s essay seeks to expand upon the literature discussing the European Union’s process of development of foreign policy, clarify the issues preventing the development of meaningful foreign policy; and therefore contribute to the body of knowledge concerning the difficulties that the EU faces in this regard. Finally, the study will examine the main foreign policy priorities and instruments of the European Union in the region of the South Caucasus, and the specificities and development prospectives of Armenia - EU partnership, as the EU’s policy towards the South Caucasus is an example of the inability of its member states to develop a common policy towards the post-Soviet space. The failure of conflict resolution in its neighborhood is also the result of diverging interests between the member states and the EU’s limited engagement in its neighborhood. The analysis has shown that the EU cannot be called a super state, nor it is an intergovernmental body; it has elements of both: supranational and intergovernmental forms, thus, it is a mixture of the two. Moreover, the Treaty of Lisbon does not change a hybrid character of the European Union, and intergovernmental practices will still dominate in the EU foreign policy system. Thus, progress towards a more efficient and coherent CFSP can only be made by transfer of competences from the member states to the European level.