ABSTRACT
The first chapter defined the tense relationship underpinning ‘EU’ external relations as the desire to maintain distinct spheres of legal authority against the exigencies of international politics which often require a concerted response. In this chapter, I outline coherence as a constitutional principle of EU external relations law, and provide a definition composed of three levels through which to analyze coherence in EU external relations from a legal and a political perspective. The framework as provided in this second chapter stems from the diverse nature in which coherence emerges from the European Neighbourhood Policy, which is exemplary for EU external relations writ large. The ENP, in all its geographic, institutional and substantive diversity, prominently exhibits the ‘integration-law-policy’ tension with many legal and political illustrations of attempts to attain coherence across actors, norms and instruments. A non-exhaustive list of illustrations would include: First, on the normative side, the European Security Strategy was unequivocal in connecting all different facets of the European Neighbourhood Policy to a single objective, the security of the Union and its citizens. 1 Second, from the perspective of instruments, the ENP is carried out on the basis of soft legal action plans drawn up in collaboration between the different EU institutions, Member States and third countries with the goal of policy convergence towards commonly agreed goals and ‘shared values’. Third, from an institutional perspective within the Union, the ENP was drawn up through extensive inter-institutional and Member State consultation reflected in such policy documents as the Solana-Patten Joint Letter of August 2002. 2 Fourth, from a cross-pillar perspective the financing regulation that was adopted in the former Community framework explicitly states that it provides funding towards Union objectives. 3 Finally, in the post-Lisbon context the EU’s new External Action Service set up with the objective of strengthening policy coherence (Art 27.3 TEU) now incorporates all different Commission services formerly responsible for the Neighbourhood Policy. 4
