Geert De Baere

Bio: Geert De Baere is an academic researcher from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. The author has contributed to research in topics: European union & International law. The author has an hindex of 9, co-authored 47 publications receiving 304 citations.

Constitutional Principles of EU External Relations

Abstract: Preface List of Abbreviations Table of Legal Instruments and Other Documents Table of Cases and Opinions Introduction PART I: EC EXTERNAL RELATIONS 1. Conferral 2. Vertical Conflict Resolution in EC External Relations: Exclusivity and Non-exclusivity 3. The Community Method PART II: THE COMMON FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLICY 4. CFSP v. EC External Relations 5. Democracy and the Rule of Law in EU Foreign Policy 6. The Dichotomy Between EC External Relations and the CFSP PART III: MANAGING THE VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL AXES 7. Managing the Vertical Axis 8. Managing The Horizontal Axis: Horizontal Consistency PART IV: CONCLUSIONS 9. The Constitutional Particularities of EU Foreign Policy 10. EU Foreign Policy, Identity, and Law Bibliography

EU Law and the EEAS: Of Complex Competences and Constitutional Consequences

Abstract: In her foreword to the 2013 EEAS Review, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (High Representative or HR) Baroness Ashton likened the early days of the European External Action Service (EEAS) and its setting-up phase to ‘trying to fly a plane while still bolting the wings on’ (EEAS, 2013, p 1) This chapter explores the legal nuts and bolts of the construction of the EEAS An astonishing amount of law is involved While foreign policy and law have forever been strange bedfellows (De Baere, 2012, pp 359–360; Wessel, 2015), European integration is essentially a legalisation project (Cappelletti, Seccombe and Weiler, 1986), for the EU is a system constructed on the basis of law It has created its own distinctive legal system, and legal niceties and practical legal implications dominate its everyday functions (Allott, 1999, p 37, 46; De Baere, 2012, p 364) Law also played a determining role in the fraught negotiation process setting up the EEAS (Erkelens and Blockmans, 2012; Van Vooren, 2011), and it continues to have a crucial impact on its daily functioning At the same time, the EEAS is a groundbreaking legal construction, and as such it has had an impact on EU constitutional law, 1 which it has influenced and even transformed

The Organisation and Functioning of the European External Action Service: Achievements, Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract: The organisation and functioning of the European External Action Service (EEAS) has met both challenges and opportunities for improvement. These issues are explored from an internal and external perspective, covering both the EEAS at Headquarters in Brussels and the bilateral and multilateral Union Delegations. The new institutional system has created opportunities and working mechanisms that aim to foster coherence, effectiveness and continuity in EU external action. There are examples that show positive developments, but also challenges. The EEAS should utilise its ‘coherence mandate’ towards becoming the prime diplomatic entrepreneur in EU external action by fostering reciprocal information sharing, cooperation and coordination between national and EU levels, shaping and proposing novel policy ideas, and promoting coherent external action across all policy domains. Three key steps are needed to attain this objective: (i) a ‘new deal’ between the Commission and the EEAS; (ii) stronger support from the Member States to the EEAS; and (iii) abandoning budget neutrality in favour of a more realistic focus on budgetary efficiency. Policy Department DG External Policies 2 This study was requested by the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs.

EEAS 2.0: A legal commentary on Council Decision 2010/427/EU establishing the organisation and functioning of the European External Action Service. CEPS Paperbacks. February 2013

Abstract: This short and user-friendly legal commentary on the 2010 Council Decision establishing the organisation and functioning of the EEAS is the first of its kind. It is intended to inform those involved in the review process and to serve as a reference document for practitioners and analysts dealing with the EEAS. Rather than an elaborate doctrinal piece, this legal commentary is a textual and contextual analysis of each article that takes account of i) other relevant legal provisions (primary, secondary, international); ii) the process leading to the adoption of the 2010 Council Decision; iii) the preamble of the Council Decision and iv) insofar as it is possible at this stage, early implementation. Wherever relevant, cross-references to other provisions of the Council Decision have been made so as to tie in the different commentaries and ensure overall consistency.

Failing forward in EU migration policy? EU integration after the 2015 asylum and migration crisis

Abstract: By advancing integration through incomplete agreements, the European Union (EU) has created the very conditions for the emergence of crises, and this has, in turn, spurred on further agreements to deepen integration. Employing this theoretical lens, this article examines EU co-operation in asylum and migration that culminated in 2015 to determine whether crises are, in fact, integral to a cyclical process of EU integration rather than occasional events caused by external shocks. This is done by examining the failures and crises that emerged in migration and asylum policy up to 2015 and the agreements struck at EU level to address them. It is found that despite nominal action to address the weak monitoring mechanisms in use to date and incremental reinforcement of the constellation of institutions operating in this area, no solution has dealt with the critical lack of solidarity and absence of centralized institutions at the root of these issues.

Challenging Executive Dominance in European Democracy

Abstract: Executive dominance in the contemporary EU is part of a wider migration of executive power towards types of decision making that eschew electoral accountability and popular democratic control. This democratic gap is fed by far-going secrecy arrangements and practices exercised in a concerted fashion by the various executive actors at different levels of governance and resulting in the blacking out of crucial information and documents - even for parliaments. Beyond a deconstruction exercise on the nature and location of EU executive power and secretive working practices, this article focuses on the challenges facing parliaments in particular. It seeks to reconstruct a more pro-active and networked role of parliaments - both national and European - as countervailing power. In this vision parliaments must assert themselves in a manner that is true to their role in the political system and that is not dictated by government at any level.

European Constitutional Law

Abstract: The European Union has existed for over half a century. Having started as the 'Europe of the Six' in a specific industrial sector, the Union today has twenty-seven Member States and acts within almost all areas of social life. The Union's constitutional structures have evolved in parallel with this immense growth. Born as an international organisation, the Union has developed into a constitutional Union of States. This textbook analyses the constitutional law of the European Union after Lisbon in a clear and structured way. Examining the EU through a classic constitutional perspective, it explores all the central themes of the course: from the history and structure of the Union, the powers and procedures of its branches of government, to the rights and remedies of European citizens. A clear three-part structure and numerous illustrations will facilitate understanding. Critical and comprehensive, this is required reading for all students of European constitutional law.