| dc.description.abstract | This chapter introduces the concept of structural principles, drawn from the Treaties and elaborated by the European Court of Justice to establish the institutional space within which the EU’s external policy may be formed, in which the different actors understand and work within their respective roles. Using structural principles alongside Treaty rules the Court of Justice ensures that the institutions act within their powers, and that the Member States do not obstruct the formation and implementation of Union policy, while emphasising the need for the institutions to retain their discretion and their room for manoeuvre. The principles identified here as structural principles include the duty of sincere cooperation, the principles of conferral and institutional balance, mutual solidarity, subsidiarity, and the principle of autonomy. By identifying and developing these principles, which by their nature are flexible and capable of evolution, the Court of Justice exercises a formidable role in the governance of EU external action despite its hands-off approach to substantive policy choice. This chapter explores the nature of these structural principles as legal norms. It first offers an explanation for the importance of structural principles in the EU’s external relations by exploring the nature of EU external relations powers. Second it begins an enquiry into the nature of structural principles: what does it mean to say that they are principles, that they are structural, and that they operate within external relations? Third, it offers a tentative typology of structural principles and some ideas on the ways in which they may complement and operate in tension with each other. | en |