The Lisbon Treaty, the European External Action Service and the Reshaping of EU Development Policy

Abstract

Following nearly a decade of fractious debate over European Union institutional reform, the Lisbon Treaty finally entered into force on 1 December 2009. Article 208 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) requires that development cooperation be conducted within the framework of external action, and states that ‘the Union shall take account of the objectives of development cooperation in the policies that it implements which are likely to affect developing countries’.¹ Given that much of the EU’s external action (and many of its ‘domestic’ policies) affect developing countries in some way, the stage appeared set for the institutional reforms through which the Treaty would be implemented to prioritise development policy in EU external affairs, while addressing long-standing weaknesses in the coherence and coordination of European development policy making. High expectations were expressed at the outset — Baroness Catherine Ashton, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy and Commission Vice President (HR/VP), described the Treaty as a ‘once-in-a-generation opportunity’ to improve the coherence of the EU’s external policies in support of common global objectives.² In a speech to the European Parliament Development Committee, EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said that ‘perhaps more than in any other sector development reflects Europe’s shared values and common willingness to implement them effectively […] development rightly finds its place at the head and heart of EU external action worldwide’.³