Our 2012 review painted a picture of an EU pulled between a seemingly inexorable series of internal crises, on the one hand, and myriad external demands, on the other (Hadfield and Fiott, 2013). The year 2013 largely continued the theme of balancing slow-paced internal consolidation with increasingly demanding diplomatic requirements arising from within the Eastern Partnership, and specifically Ukraine. Despite the tentative recovery of the Eurozone, the challenges of confirming its own budget (the Multiannual Financial Framework, or MFF) and the continuing difficulties in its neighbourhood, the EU arguably gained greater confidence in diplomatic terms in 2013.
Journal of Common Market Studies, 2014, Vol. 52, No. S1
Daniel Fiott 