HIGH REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UNION FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND SECURITY POLICY - ANALYSIS OF THE LISBON TREATY PROVISION

The introduction of the Treaty of Lisbon has brought important changes to the architecture of the European Union and its institutions. The institutional balance of the new structure, which abolished the pillars of the EU, and the external representation of the Union have undergone especially deep changes, focused mainly on the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Through literal, systemic and functional interpretation this article provides an analysis of the evolution and content of the provisions concerning the High Representative in order to ascertain the value and effect of the changes introduced. The research indicates that the new legal solutions encompassed by the function of the High Representative, although incomplete, offer many interesting possibilities for consolidating the Union's institutional structure. Regrettably however, they leave too much to negotiations and political manoeuvring and too little to concrete legal solutions, leaving the Union with an incomplete and unclear external relations institutional structure.