THE EXTERNAL REPRESENTATION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION: LEGAL-INSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS

From the mid-60's the external representation of the European Communities has been organised according to a bicephalous model characterised by the cohabitation of the Commission and the Council. This model has caused tensions at internal level and has generated uncertainty and lack of trust with respect to third countries, not parties to the European Union. The signature of the treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, that took place in Rome on 29 October 2004, gives us the opportunity to examine in a global way the international role of the Union and, more in particular, to assess its external representation model. The European Constitution introduces some significant changes in the institutional model of external representation, main object of this article. Some of the novelties are the creation of the European Council's President that will certainly bring more stability to the EU putting an end to the traditional system of rotation between Member States, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and a diplomatic service under the responsibility of the latter. The Constitutional treaty seeks this way to enhance the presence of the Union at international level and to improve its visibility although not in a total satisfactory manner that would allow the EU to reach a sufficient degree of coherence. Taking into account the plurality of subjects that are given responsibilities by the Constitution in the framework of the external action of the Union, it is not justified to speak about a single representative of the EU in the international scene. As a consequence, if the Constitutional treaty would come into force in the next coming future the external representation of the EU would have three different faces: the President of the European Council, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the President of the European Commission. Therefore, the fragmentation of the external representation already a reality - would be more accentuated in the future, making more difficult the abolition of contradictions and rivalries between the different institutions that would have powers in the mentioned field. The personality and capacity of the persons that will be appointed for those positions will play an essential role in order to overcome those problems as well as the possibility of articulating some other coordination mechanism.