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The Consistency of EU External Action Revisited: The European Union as an International Actor Caught Between Constitutional Ambitions and Functional Constraints

par Navasartian Havani, Areg
Président du jury Angelet, Nicolas
Promoteur Briere, Chloe
Publication Non publié, 2026-07-06

Thèse de doctorat

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Résumé :

The thesis sets out to study the consistency requirement in EU external action through the prism of the EU’s founding values, and more particularly the value of human rights. It argues that in the current Treaties and given the normative evolution of the EU, consistency is a structural condition for the EU to project its international identity on the global scene and thus to enhance its actorness. This identity is both legally and politically rooted in values. Article 21 TEU and the Charter of Fundamental Rights further establish and concretise the legal normative obligations incumbent on the EU as an international actor: self-compliance, inducing compliance in partners, and norm-setting, which set the overall benchmark for the consistency of its external action. The thesis then verifies the tools the EU deploys to ensure such consistency and flags a series of risks of inconsistency in their operationalisation. Departing from the general understanding that consistency of EU external action is a matter of political will, the thesis verifies to what extent the overall Treaty-framework and more generally the theoretical foundations of the EU legal order promote, or, conversely, impede such consistency. The thesis holds that due to an unresolved constitutional-functional tension embedded at the root of the EU legal framework, crystallised in the design of EU external action, the Treaties themselves render consistency systemically fragile. It demonstrates this tension through the different legal rules and principles governing the conduct of EU external action.