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External Relations of the European Union. Legal and Constitutional Foundations. By Piet Eeckhout. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. 490 pages. $60.00.

Reviewed by Juan Santos Vara.

 

            Since its beginnings, European integration has been characterized as a progressive and dynamic process in constant evolution. These characteristics are perceived with special intensity in its external dimension, which has proven to be one of the most unique and complex components of the Community system.  For this reason, the analysis of the European Union’s (EU) external relations is one of the areas that is most of interest among scholars of European integration. However, it is not an easy task to do a general study of external relations that can at the same time reflects the intricate problems involved in the EU’s broad and intense foreign activity. In this sense, Eeckhout has managed to achieve a suitable combination of both objectives, since the work presents with great clarity and coherence the diverse aspects of external relations, and at the same time offers abundant reflections and personal contributions.

 

          The book has three parts, which are in turn each divided into four chapters.  The first, entitled “Constitutional Foundations: Powers and Objectives”, is devoted to the study of the constitutional provisions that provide the legal basis for EU external action. It is an enormously complex issue, since the lack of a precise demarcation of competences is a characteristic of the European integration process which, in the sphere of external relations, takes on special complexity. Professor Eeckhout approaches all the issues with great clarity and scientific rigor.

 

            The originality of the work’s structure should also be recognized. After a brief introduction, the author goes directly into the study of Community competences in relation to common commercial policy. Without a suitable understanding of the development of the commercial policy, one can hardly understand the rest of the external action, since as Eeckhout affirms “the EEC Treaty provisions on a common commercial policy are thus the very constitutional origin of EU external relations” (p.56). The following chapter focuses on the implied powers developed by the Court of Justice, which has had great relevance in the process of consolidating external relations. The author demonstrates at all times profound knowledge of the Court of Justice’s jurisprudence, which leads to many interesting reflections.

 

            Once he has clearly demonstrated the constitutional importance of the common commercial policy and the doctrine of parallelism, he examines the external competences of the European Community in those policies that have a substantial external projection and the external powers under the Treaty of the European Union.

 

            The second part of the book deals with the relations between International Law and Community Law in matters relating to international treaties. The author does not limit himself to a merely descriptive analysis of the role of the different institutions involved in the negotiation and conclusion of international agreements but rather reflects on constitutional issues posed with special intensity in the area of external relations, such as the division of powers, democracy, accountability and legitimacy.

 

            Moreover, the setting up of mixed agreements constitutes one of the characteristic traits of the EU’s external action that poses complex and delicate problems in practice. Within this context, special attention is given to the EU’s participation in international organizations. In spite of its being an attribute of external relations in its own right, in the majority of cases the EU participates in other organizations together with the Member States. For this reason, Eeckhout considers that the problems posed by the membership in international organizations are similar to those deriving from mixed agreements. Some have been tried to provide answers to these difficulties posed by “mixity” by means of the duty of cooperation. However, as the author explains, the duty of cooperation is a general principle created by jurisprudence which has to be specified in each specific institutional sphere.

 

            In this part of the work the author also analyses the role of the European Courts in the interpretation and application of agreements concluded by the Community and the effects of international agreements and International Law in the EU legal order. These are very technical issues, in which direct effect occupies a central position. Although doctrinal studies have often revolved around the absence of direct effect in the GATT and the WTO agreements, it should not be forgotten –in the opinion of the author- that the same criteria are applied to international treaties as in cases relating to internal law and that the Court of Justice shows a receptive attitude towards International Law. Nevertheless, after a deep analysis of the topic, Eeckhout concludes that the concept of direct effect is still enigmatic (p.344).

 

            The third part of the work is devoted to the study of some of the EU’s external policies. The study of the principal components of the common commercial policy receives special attention in order to complement the chapter on Community competences in this area. The Court of Justice has actively contributed to the development of this policy. However, Eeckhout concludes that “one cannot escape the impression that the Courts are less inclined to assist private parties in the external trade field” than in relation to those acts that have merely internal effects (p. 394). The author explores the banana saga as an example of the difficulty of obtaining successful judicial review.

 

            Following this, Eeckhout studies the instruments and actors of the Common and Foreign Security Policy and the links between trade policy and foreign policy in the areas of economic sanctions and exports control In the last chapter of the work he analyses the EU’s external human rights policy which, even though it has its own distinctive traits, is at the same time characterized by being transversal and horizontal to all foreign policies.

 

            In sum, we find ourselves with an excellent, well-documented work that gives us a hint of the deep scholarly insight of the author and provides us with a broad and deep view of the constitutional and legal bases for the EU’s external action. In my opinion, this is recommendable reading not only for experts in EU external policy but also for all those interested in the process of European integration from a general perspective.