EU-China ties face new questions

One of the chief recommendations of the Lisbon Treaty, which came into force in December 2009, was that it would enhance the global standing of the European Union (EU). The creation of two high-level posts - President of the European Council and High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy - would help Europe represent itself more clearly to the rest of the world.

The powers of the High Representative, in particular, would ensure EU foreign policy was better streamlined and coordinated. For many in Brussels, the passing of the Lisbon Treaty marked the moment when the EU finally possessed the institutional tools that would help it realize its potential as a global strategic actor.

Has Lisbon changed European politics? A cursory survey would suggest not. There was first the unsightly image of national governments engaged in intense jockeying over the top positions. Those eventually appointed as president and high representative - Herman Van Rompuy, then Belgian prime minister, and British peer Catherine Ashton - faced immediate criticism for their apparent lack of gravitas. More recently the protracted nature of negotiations over a financial aid package for debt-laden Greece has not projected an image of European unity to the world.