The EU’s Political and Security Committee:still in the shadows but no longer governing?

The Lisbon Treaty introduced the most far-reaching reforms to EU foreign and security policy cooperation since the 1990s. In the years since, much attention has been focused on the role of the High Representative/Vice President and the European External Action Service. Yet as Heidi Maurer and Nicholas Wright explain, there has been little attention paid to the impact the Lisbon Treaty had on the EU’s Political and Security Committee (PSC), which brings together Ambassadors from the EU’s member states to help manage foreign policy cooperation. Drawing on a new study, they reveal how the PSC, which once sat at the centre of EU foreign policy-making, is now battling to maintain its influence in a much-changed institutional landscape.