ABSTRACT
With the adoption of the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992, the European Union (EU) began to pay particular attention to human rights and democratization issues in its relations with third countries. Since then, the EU has significantly upgraded its human rights and democratization policies vis-a-vis third countries, and has placed human rights and democracy 'at the heart of EU External Action'. The Treaty of Lisbon has brought about important changes to the EU's commitment to human rights and democracy and to the EU's institutional capacity on the international plane. The challenge of delivery describes the difficulties that the Union faces in going from the theory of its commitment to the practice arising from actual policy. The Strategic Framework laid out the foundations of a human rights strategy which the Action Plans have, with their limitations, helped to implement. The lack of conceptual clarity also raises problems of delivery.
