The Challenge of Public Diplomacy for the European External Action Service. EIPAscope 01/2011

One of the main questions emerging from the EU nascent diplomatic corps – the European External Action Service (EEAS) – is what type of diplomacy the EU will conduct and what will be the added value of this new level of diplomacy for the years to come? This article looks at the concept of public diplomacy both in general and in the specific context of EU external relations. It considers the potential of the Lisbon Treaty and the establishment of the EEAS to improve the public diplomacy capacity of the EU and argues that effective EU public diplomacy could be essential to the success of the new European level diplomacy1