ABSTRACT
The European Union (EU), over the last decade, has become increasingly concerned with conflicts and insecurity in other parts of the world and has accordingly stepped up its involvement in these issues and developed a set of conflict prevention and crisis management policies. This evolution has occurred in parallel with, and is clearly linked to the emergence of a European Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and seemed to point to the politicization of the EU’s external relations, until then essentially based on the European Community’s (EC’s) development policies and on member states’ relations with third states. The Lisbon Treaty is meant to strengthen this new trend by creating a High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, an External Action Service and transforming the European Commission delegations into EU delegations that replace the Presidency’s embassies in their representation and negotiation functions. It would seem reasonable to conclude from this set of observations that the EU is attempting to become a diplomatic actor, one increasingly involved in the making of international political affairs, in possession of a good understanding of the politics of its international partners and willing to engage in political negotiations with them – hence the concept of ‘politicization’ used here.
