The EU’s External Policies and Current Geo-Political Challenges

The issue of efficient decision-making in EU foreign and security policy has been a priority since the inception of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and remains high on the political agenda today. The 2024 Letta and Draghi reports, followed by the Commission’s 2025 Competitiveness Compact, have further underscored the need for the European Union to strengthen its role as a global actor. Recent events, including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as the US elections, have reignited discussions on how to enhance the EU’s external action.

In response, European leaders have not only stressed the political necessity of a ‘global awakening’ for Europe but have also proposed legal solutions to support this shift. This event builds on these discussions by examining the legal pathways to improve coherence and effectiveness in the CFSP. It will explore how the EU Treaties allow for a transition from unanimity to qualified majority voting in CFSP and highlight recent developments in the Union’s defence policy, particularly the European Commission’s growing role. The key takeaway is that the EU’s foreign, security, and defence policies are becoming increasingly ‘normalized’ as integral components of the Union’s broader external relations.

Professor Ramses A. Wessel is a Dutch scholar specializing in European law, particularly focusing on the interplay between EU law and international as well as domestic legal systems. He serves as the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Groningen and is a member of the Faculty Board. Additionally, he holds the position of Professor of European Law and heads the European and Economic Law Department.

Professor Wessel’s academic journey includes an LLM in International and European Law from the University of Groningen and a PhD in Law from Utrecht University. Prior to his current role, he was a Professor of International and European Law and Governance at the University of Twente, where he also held various higher administrative positions. Notably, he played a pivotal role in implementing the Twente Education Model (TOM).

His research interests encompass EU External Relations Law, the EU's Common Foreign, Security and Defence Policy, and the Law of International Organizations. Professor Wessel has contributed extensively to these fields through teaching and publications. He also serves as the Academic Director of the European Law in a Global Context LLM program. 

Throughout his career, Professor Wessel has held visiting professorships at several esteemed institutions, including the European Law Academy in Florence, Sapienza Università di Roma, and the University of Bologna. He is a former Vice President of the European Society of International Law and has been actively involved in various editorial roles, such as Editor-in-Chief of European Papers and the European Foreign Affairs Review. 

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Frank Hoffmeister holds a PhD from the University of Heidelberg (1998) and served as academic assistant at the Walter Hallstein-Institute for European Constitutional Law from 1998 until 2001. He then joined the European Commission where he worked first in the Cyprus Unit in DG Enlargement before becoming a member of the Commission Legal Service (external relations and institutional team). From 2010 to 2014 he acted as Deputy Head of Cabinet of the EU Trade Commissioner De Gucht, and as of 2015 he was Head of Unit dealing with anti-dumping at DG Trade. He joined the European External Action Service in November 2021 as Director of the Legal Department.

He teaches EU external relations law at the Free University of Brussels and has written extensively on EU and international law matters. He edited (together with J Wouters, G Debaere and T Ramopoulos) The Law of EU External Relations - Cases, Materials and Commentary on the EU as an International Legal Actor (Oxford, OUP, third edition 2021).