"The use of economic tools in support of foreign policy goals: The linkage between EC and CFSP in the European Union framework"

This paper aims at showing how a link has been progressively established between the economic external relations of the European Communities and the decisions taken by the member states in the European political cooperation (EPC) process. EPC has been now transformed into a common foreign and security policy (CFSP) by the treaty on European Union. Before discussing the efficiency or the consistency of political conditionality in EC economic external relations, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the political and legal aspects of the building of a link between EC and EPC/CFSP in the international arena. Therefore, one has to make some preliminary remarks to recall the origin of CFSP and to grasp the nature of such a "common" policy. We will then move on to the most striking aspect of the EC-EPC/ CFSP linkage: the economic sanctions issue. Afterwards, we will point out some consequences of the EC economic sanctions practice (positive economic measures or regulation concerning the export of dual-use goods), and finally, we will try to assess the recurring presence of a kind of democratic conditionality in the economic external relations of the EU