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Claudia Dunlea
Charles de Gaulle and the Failure of a European Diplomacy
Keywords: De Gaulle, Gründung eines europäischen auswärtigen Dienstes, Frankreichs Nein zu europäischen Botschaften
The valorisation of the profile of the European Union as an actor on the international stage has been a goal of the member states for some time. However, progress is hard to achieve in the field of the Common European Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The history of European integration is therefore full of failed attempts to collectively develop a coherent foreign policy. The most recent effort to optimise the profile of the Union in this area by the planned introduction of a European Union Minister for Foreign Affairs as well as a European External Action Service (EEAS) subordinated to him has to be considered a failure for the time being. The article deals with the question why the development of a European Diplomacy has failed. However, the focus of the investigation does not lie in the present, but rather in the Sixties, during the de Gaulle era. The conversion of the Commission delegations into Union delegations as specified in the current constitutional treaty could have been achieved over forty years ago – if the French government had not vetoed it.
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag
Print ISSN: 0042-5702
Volume: 55, 03/2007
Pages: 463 - 484