Panos Koutrakos

This new edition provides a definitive, comprehensive and systematic analysis of the law governing the EU’s action in the world. Updated to take into account the Lisbon Treaty and recent case law, the book covers all constitutional aspects of the EU’s international action and the procedures for treaty-making. It analyses the relationship between the EU and its Members with emphasis on mixed agreements, and the status of international law in the EU legal order. It explores the links between the EU and international organisations (such as the WTO) and examines the EU’s external economic and political relations and its various links with third countries, including its neighbours. It analyses, amongst others, the Common Commercial Policy, sanctions, the Common Foreign and Security Policy, and the Common Security and Defence Policy.This new edition is the most up-to-date work of its kind, examining both the law and practice in a wide range of external policies, placing the law in its political and economic context and exploring the links between the EU’s external and internal actions.

Presenting the first analytical overview of the legal foundations of the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), this book provides a detailed examination of the law and practice of the EU's security policy. The European Union's security and defence policy has long been the focus of political scientists and international relations experts. However, it has more recently become of increasing relevance to lawyers too. Since the early 2000s, the EU has carried out more than two dozen security and defence missions in Europe, Africa, and Asia. The EU institutions are keen to stress the security dimension of other external policies also, such as development cooperation, and the Lisbon Treaty introduces a more detailed set of rules and procedures which govern the CSDP. This book provides a legal analysis of the Union's CSDP by examining the nexus of its substantive, institutional, and economic dimensions. Taking as its starting point the historical development of security and defence in the context of European integration, it outlines the legal framework created by the rules and procedures introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon. It examines the military operations and civilian missions undertaken by the Union, and looks at the policy context within which they are carried out. It analyses the international agreements concluded in this field and explores the links between the CSDP and other external policies of the Union.

This book examines how the increasing interdependence between trade and foreign policy can be managed within the legal framework of the European Union. In the context of the legally distinct characteristics of the European Community and the Common Foreign and Security Policy,it analyses the problems underpinning the regulation of three areas: sanctions against third countries, armaments, and exports of dual-use goods. The focus is on whether the constitutional order of the European Union may address these problems while performing a variety of functions: ensuring the consistency and coherence of its external relations, preserving the acquis communautaire and respecting the right of the Member States to conduct their foreign policy as fully sovereign subjects of international law. The book concludes that the interactions between trade and foreign policy may be regulated in a legally sensible and realistic way within the current structure of the European Union. The recent developments regarding the defense and security identity of the European Union and the debate over the nature of an enlarged Union make this book all the more topical.