European Foreign Relations
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EUROPEAN FOREIGN RELATIONS

Throughout the process of European integration, the European Union has achieved a good dynamics of conciliation between its members states, third countries and diverse organisations of the international society, besides some joint performances of relevancy.

Nevertheless, it has not achieved the implementation of a real common foreign policy, since it has not had until the present, the appropriate necessary means, neither from the institutional nor from the material point of view. For this reason, it has not managed to be heard with a solid voice in the world, nor has it carried out a political role in the international sphere that matches its role in the economic and commercial spheres.

The consolidation of the Foreign Policy of the European Union is a key issue for the future. This is the reason why the external relations of the European Union constitute one of the main lines of research for the University Institute for European Studies, articulated within two issues:

THE EUROPEAN SECURITY AND DEFENCE POLICY 

At present the ESDP faces a decisive moment. On the one hand the most recent enlargements in the Union, the possibility of making use of the mechanism for reinforced cooperations in this sphere, and the difficulty of advancing in the application of the majority rule, and on the other the new threats that challenge Europe and the international society, like terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, regional conflicts, weakening of states and organised crime, open new perspectives in the foreign policy of the Union that are studied in this line of research.

 

THE EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE UNION

The External Relations of the Union that is the privileged relations that the Union maintains with some regional areas. The consolidation of a real Common Foreign Policy depends, to a large extent on the importance and efficiency of the external relations.

Some areas studied within the Royal University Institute for European Studies are the followings:

  • Latin America and Caribbean
  • United States
  • Neighbouring countries
  • Russia
  • China