Book

Speaking with One Voice

EU Diplomatic Cooperation in Third Countries

Rafael Daerr
Release Date: December 1, 2003

Recent decades have seen the institutionalization of the foreign and security policy at the European level, first through the European Political Cooperation and, since 1993, via the emerging Common Foreign and Security Policy. At the same time, diplomatic cooperation in third countries (non EU-member nations), among embassies of the member states and EU delegations, has evolved significantly.

This timely study analyzes the development to date of European diplomatic cooperation in third countries before addressing its likely evolution. It assesses the impact of cooperation on the internal decision-making process in Brussels and in member states’ capitals and the added value cooperation provides for the external implementation of European foreign policy. The study focuses particularly on diplomatic cooperation in Pakistan and the policy adopted by the European Union and its member states towards South Asia. This has become a key foreign policy priority for the EU since India and Pakistan joined the league of nuclear powers.