An Analysis Of The Role Of The European Commission In The International Negotiations

When conducting an international negotiation, different from a nation-state, theEuropean Union will commonly debate upon its legal right on its representation. Although itis clearly stated in the Treaties that the European Commission’s right for representing theUnion should be “ensured”, it is still possible to delegate a representative other than theCommission. Therefore, when acting as the representative of the EU in an internationalnegotiation, what is the exact role the Commission will be playing? Are there any uniquefunctions the Commission could resort compared with other representatives?Although being restricted by the Union’s competence and the Council’s controlmechanism in the entire process of an international negotiation, the Commission, unlike otherUnion-institutions or Member States, is independent and Union’s-interest oriented. Withinthe principal-agent relationship with the Council, it can be considered as an “upper levelhetero-agency” with a preference based on the union’s level. Besides, with the power to takeinitiative in both internal legislative procedure and external actions, say, internationalnegotiation, the Commission will pursue it’s preference by “bidirectional agency” process,perfecting the Union’s internal institutional design and converge the Union’s preference to aupper level. The EU-US “Open Sky” negotiation, as an example, successfully illustrated thethe Commission’s anti-control actions in the authorization stage and the ratification stage, bya. a legally ensured representation with newly conferred competence, and b. three newlyinitiated institutional designs which integrated the previously fragmented powers of theUnion’s internal and external aviation policies. Thus, it conveyed the Union’s commonposition and preferences to an upper level, and safeguarded the general interests of the entireUnion.