CLEER Paper 2015/2 - Kerres, Wessel
Apples and Oranges? Comparing the European Union Delegations to National Embassies
Pia Kerres and Ramses A. Wessel
This paper aims to assess the tasks of EU Delegations and national missions, as laid down in their respective constitutive texts, namely the Council Decision establishing the organisation and functioning of the European External Action Service (hereinafter called EEAS Decision) and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR) and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (VCDR). The findings of this first part are combined with those retrieved from a survey conducted among selected EU Delegations. In this part, the paper takes a legal-political approach to the question concerning the extent to which EU Delegations can be compared to national Embassies. The second section of this paper takes a look at the creation of the Delegations, their functions and involvement in different settings, while the third section addresses possible similarities between the different legal and policy texts. This part is followed by an analysis of the behaviour of Delegations in practice. Some conclusions are presented at the end of the paper.
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