European External Action Service - EEAS

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Official Facebook page of the European External Action Service (EEAS)

Geschiedenis

The role of the EEAS is to coordinate the European Union's (EU) foreign and security policies. Its purpose is to bring greater coherence, consistency and coordination to the foreign and security polices of the EU. This will enable Europe and its 500 million citizens to speak with a stronger voice in world affairs and promote European values like democracy, human rights, peace building, good governance and multilateralism.

The Head of the External Action Service is Federica Mogherini, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who is also Vice-President of the European Commission. Ensuring the consistency and coordination of the EU’s policies towards the rest of the world is the key task of this post. The High Representative can propose and implement policy although the actual making of EU foreign policy is the responsibility of the monthly meeting of EU Foreign Ministers – the Foreign Affairs Council - which is chaired by Federica Mogherini. The EEAS supports the work of the High Representative, as well as that of the President of the Council, and President of the European Commission, when they deal with International issues.

The EEAS has its Headquarters in Brussels and is responsible for running 139 EU Delegations and Offices around the world which represent the EU and its citizens worldwide. Maintaining political dialogue, administering development aid, overseeing EU trade issues and building cultural contacts, are just some of the tasks undertaken by EU Delegations whose staff comes from a number of different departments of the External Action Service and the European Commission.

The creation of the EEAS is one of the most significant changes introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon which entered into force on 1 December 2009. The EEAS was created by the merger of the external relations departments of the European Commission and the Council and by some diplomatic staff from the EU’s 28 countries.