Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 06/2014

A Window of Opportunity to Upgrade EU Foreign Policy

Stefan Lehne

May 2014

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Abstract

As the financial crisis recedes and the European Union (EU) regains a measure of internal stability, pressure in Europe’s neighborhood is on the rise. The Ukraine crisis and turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa have elevated foreign policy to the top of the EU’s agenda. Whether the EU can make its external action more effective will depend in large part on institutional decisions made in 2014—the selection of a new leadership team and the reorganization of the European Commission.