19. External Policies

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of the four most important external policies of the European Union. It starts with the Common Commercial Policy (CCP), which still constitutes the ‘centrepiece’ of EU external relations. It is set out in Title II of the External Action Part of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The chapter also looks at the legal foundations of the Union's development policy. The Union's development policy draws on various parts within the EU Treaties, of which Chapter 1 within Title III of the External Action Part represents only an element of the overall picture. The chapter then moves to the Common Foreign and Security Policy, which touches upon the military heart of the Member States' external sovereignty; and it has therefore been subject to very rigid political safeguards of federalism. Finally, it explores the ‘policies’ of association and enlargement. While not styled as external policies as such, the Union has nonetheless turned both into formidable strategic tools to ‘export’ its values.