The Times looks at the creation of the European Union’s External Action Service (EAS), established under the Lisbon Treaty. The article notes that federalist EU politicians are seeking to establish a strong EAS before a potential “obstructionist” UK Conservative government takes office.

If the second referendum in Ireland on the Treaty of Lisbon this autumn goes yes then the EU is going to have a new foreign policy chief from 2010. The Treaty of Lisbon creates the position of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, aka EU Foreign Minister, merging the current

Whether we like it or not, the Lisbon treaty will soon become law. David Cameron, having opposed the treaty vigorously, has rightly said that as Prime Minister he will not be able to unpick a treaty that has already been...

The Treaty of Lisbon brings the current external Community policies together in a more comprehensive manner, although the intergovernmental conference ‘modified’ the whole area for the worse compared with the Constitutional Treaty, by parking the common foreign and security policy and the common security and defence policy in the Treaty on European Union, despite the formal abolishment...

Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called for a “European army” in a speech at the 46th Munich Conference on Security Policy on Saturday. He said, “The Lisbon Treaty opened a new chapter…Lisbon is not the end but, rather, the beginning. For instance, the Treaty outlines a common security and defence policy.

The European Scrutiny Committee has effectively backed 88% of the British people who wanted a say on the Lisbon Treaty and who have questioned, on grounds of democracy and law, how the Lisbon Treaty could ever have been enforced in...

The Sun reports that Foreign Secretary David Miliband has told officials to hold talks on how to bring the Lisbon Treaty into force. Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague is quoted saying “The Irish people have already rejected this EU Treaty and the British have been denied a say.

In the presence of a smiling Catherine Ashton, the European Parliament yesterday (20 October) approved by an overwhelming majority the last three legislative texts required to launch the European External Action Service (EEAS) on 1 December 2010, the day of the first anniversary of the Lisbon Treaty.

When Spain took over the European Union's six-month presidency from Sweden on January 1, it inherited much more than the usual catalogue of economic and foreign policy challenges because it is the first incumbent to operate under the Lisbon Treaty rules

"Even if the Lisbon Treaty enters into force by early 2010 […], there still are grey areas to clarify and pending issues to address, from the residual/resilient role of the rotational EU presidency to the status and shape of the European External Action Service," write Janis Emmanouilidis and Antonio Missiroli of the European Policy Centre (EPC) in an October paper.