Abstract
The European Union is often described as an "economical giant but political pigmy" . The Union is indeed the first commercial power in the world, but its political representation on the global stage is weak. From many points of view, the former attempts to develop a common foreign policy have failed. Not only were they unable to allow an efficient European intervention in crisis situations, but they also failed in creating an effective common policy. But new ideas still emerge to encourage a common external policy. What are the reasons for that? First of all, the failure of a European common foreign policy underlined several times that the EU actually needed such a policy. It needs it also because, facing a changing world, the EU has to tend to more political integration and to become a single actor in international relations. Between 1954, when the plan to create a European defence community came up against the French assembly vote, and 1969 in the Hague Summit, the European integration was only economical. The concept of a common foreign policy emerged in the 1970s when the EU began to take common positions on international issues such as the condemnation of the apartheid.
