On 20 May 2014, Stephan KEUKELEIRE and Tom DELREUX presented their newly revised and updated edition of The Foreign Policy of the European Union (Palgrave Macmillan 2014) to an audience of around 100 academics, students, policy makers and government representatives. The event was hosted by Ambassador Dirk WOUTERS at the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the EU in Brussels. Sieglinde GSTOHL, Director of the EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies Department of the College of Europe, introduced the authors and the two discussants, Commissioner for Trade Karel DE GUCHT and Richard YOUNGS from Carnegie Europe and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe.
Stephan KEUKELEIRE, Jean Monnet Professor at the University of Leuven and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe as well as former Chairholder of the TOTAL Chair of EU Foreign Policy (2010-13) in the Department of EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies, presented the outline of the new book by focusing on some successes and weaknesses of EU Foreign Policy and introducing the key concept of Structural Foreign Policy as a paradigm shift in the way in which foreign policy is conducted in order to reach societies and individuals. Tom DELREUX, Professor at the University of Louvain, underlined the broad definition of EU Foreign Policy that is advocated in the book.
Commissioner DE GUCHT commended the authors and spoke of the post-Lisbon achievements and challenges of the EU’s Foreign Policy, including the one presented by “other structural powers”. The EU’s Foreign Policy, he concluded, will take at least a generation to achieve its goals, “but we are moving in the right direction”. Richard YOUNGS commented on the book’s “Relational vs. Structural Foreign Policy” approach and highlighted some examples of the EU’s more problematic relationships with international partners. The floor was then opened for questions, before the participants were treated to a reception.