本文以制度主義為基礎，首先，敘述高級代表一職的發展沿革；接著，分析第一與第二代高級代表的職權，以及索拉納與艾希頓在共同外交與安全政策中的表現，並比較第一與第二代高級代表的差異，做進一步的剖析；最後，界定高級代表在歐盟扮演的角色，說明是否對共同外交與安全政策帶來正面的影響。 In 1993, the European Union (EU) gave birth to the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) in the Maastricht Treaty. And the High Representative (HR) of the CFSP was first established by the Amsterdam Treaty in 1999. In 2005, the Convention on the Future of Europe proposed the revolutionary post “The Union Minister for Foreign Affairs”. However, the Constitutional Treaty was rejected by France and the Netherlands. After all, in 2009, the Lisbon Treaty inherited the significant reformation and renamed it High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. They attributed the important tasks to the HR to be one of the Vice-President of the European Commission and presiding over the Foreign Affairs Council. The HR also has the right of initiative in the CFSP and the Common Security and Defense Policy. He/she shall represent the Union and express the Union’s position in the international conferences and organizations. In addition, the European External Action Service was created to assist the HR to accomplish his/her tasks. It had become a new era of the EU foreign policy. The EU gave the HR wider power and more resources to enhance the effectiveness and consistency of the foreign policy and external action and to empower the EU to become an influential global actor.
This paper will aim at the post of the HR and use Institutionalism as its theoretical basis. First, it will describe the course of change and development of the HR. Second, it will analyze the authority of the HR, the performance of Javier Solana and Catherine Ashton, and the differences between them. Finally, it will define the role of the HR and conclude that whether the HR bring positive effect to the CFSP.
