The European Parliament in the CFSP – Between Intergovernmental Rules and Supranational Practices

Despite the formal abolition of the “pillars” structure, in practice they were preserved by special provisions for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). This policy area remains intergovernmental with predominant role of executives. Unlike other policy areas, European Parliament’s (EP) status within the CFSP has not been substantially upgraded from its pre-Lisbon role of an “ex post facto information receiver.” Despite the formal treaty-based limits, the post-Lisbon inter-institutional dynamics considerably strengthened the EP’s influence on the CFSP. Those were the informal practices between the EP and the High Representative, the EEAS and the EU delegations that facilitated the enhancement of the EP’s role in the CFSP. The article studies the new status quo, stressing the growing influence of the EP onto the CFSP. The article provides the insight into the reasons and consequences of this process as well as marks the limits of current EP’s status within this policy area. My argument is that “parliamentarization” of the CFSP is a rational choice as this process will contribute to the coherence of EU foreign policy, making its international performance stronger. This argument is based on both internal and external aspects of current CFSP perspective debate. The compound goals of the EU foreign policy as well as priority of long-term development goal bring to the fore the “economic block”, which has already been supranational. Therefore, the gap between EP’s competences in different components of the EU external relations requires a bridge. Furthermore, the Russian “hybrid war” in Ukraine as well as the concept of “comprehensive approach” for the crisis management emphasized the inter-dependence of different EU policies as well as common responsibility of the EU institutions.