The role of the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy: Baroness Catherine Ashton and the Mediation Efforts During the Kosovo and Serbia Agreement in 2013
The paper focuses on the relationship of interdependence created by the political physiognomy of an institutional leader with the prestige of the institution who represents and the results of the handled initiatives, leading finally to a comprehensive approach in the EU external action. The EU welcomed in 2009 a new post which was created for the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, whose role was to conduct the Union’s foreign policy and of making a reality the possibility of the Union’s one voice internationally. The new post required a high qualified and well known person to be chosen for guaranteeing the well promising and newly constructed institutional leadership at the EU’s external action service. Baroness Catherine Ashton, the first ever person to be appointed to this high level position, despite the social-political dissatisfaction against her, showed a professional zeal in mediation efforts with a successful diplomatic activity. An examination of the role and the consequences of the Union’s High Representative in the process and the immediate aftermath of the Kosovo and Serbia agreement in 2013, seems to be essential for understanding the importance of a serious and systematic institutional leadership towards the practical aspects of the implementation of the concept of comprehensive approach in EU external action.
Stylianos Kostas . stylianoskostas@yahoo.gr
EIUC – European Inter-University Center for Human Rights and Democratisation
Stylianos Kostas, is a Political Scientist who graduated as a Master in European Studies at the LUISS – School of Government in Rome, Italy and as a Master in Democratic Governance, Democracy and Human Rights in the MENA Region at the European Inter-University Center for Human Rights and Democratisation in Lido – Venice, Italy. His research interests focus mostly on migration, refugees, asylum, human rights, security, politics, European and MENA regional affairs and international relations.