The European External Action Service was launched in January 2010 and faces its mid- term strategic review in 2013. This report outlined a number of key deficiencies, but also areas of progress. It concludes by recommending a few areas for reform that could be addressed in the review.
The External Action Service faces two main tasks. On the one hand, it is to represent the European Union abroad as a diplomatic actor, coordinating and harmonizing the various instruments at the disposal of the European Union, namely political, economic, diplomatic, humanitarian, development and military. The second main task is to provide a home for the EU’s crisis response and crisis management institutions, policies and instruments. This report will focus on the effectiveness in responding to crisis.
The External Action Service is a new bureaucracy and as such faced many challenges, including political interference, diverging staff culture, weak accountability and oversight mechanisms, as well as lack of independent financial resources. While often a public administration perspective is neglected, such a perspective is important for understanding the shortcomings in the past year. In this regard, the report offers some comments regarding the EEAS as a new institution, refers to the challenge of integrating the EU Delegations and concludes by offering some more general recommendations on future priorities, which the mid-term review could focus on.
