‘Crisis upon decline’. Foreign policy perspectives on the EU beyond the eurozone crisis

The debate over the consequences of the current economic crisis on European foreign policy has usually been focused on a short time period, starting with the beginning of the sovereign debt crisis, and has often failed to address the last decade’s trends in the Union’s foreign policy. The efficacy of European foreign policy began to decline long before the outbreak of the global financial crisis, due to the lack of cooperation among the member states and the consequent inability to devise long-term strategies to orient EU external action. Therefore, existing policy faults must also be taken in account to properly understand Europe’s current economic and political predicament. This perspective shows how, by focusing almost exclusively on the immediate consequences of the economic crisis, European policy-makers have been exacerbating the decline of EU foreign policy. Member states’ rooted reluctance to pool their resources and share sovereignty is not only a longstanding trend impinging on EU policy processes; it is also what prevents the EU from turning the current crisis into a unique opportunity to finally identify its long-term political strategies as a multidimensional global player.