摘要
The European Union is widely seen as an important international actorlike America, Russia, China and Japan. However, it is still in theprocess of evolvement, and particularly its foreign policy-makingmechanism remains the center of adjustment in the reform of the or-ganization over recent years.
The European Union (EU) is widely regarded as an important international actor, and usually referred to as a big power like the U. S. , Russia, China and Japan. So naturally the foreign policy of the EU has caught attention of both officials and scholars over the world. However, the EU is also a combination of sovereign states, its foreign policy is different from others, and perhaps this is often ignored. For instance, unlike a single nation state, the EU's influence and power are different in various policy fields due to its different ways of decision-making and implementation. Also, different from the common currency, the forming of the common foreign policy of the EU doesn't mean the disappearance of respective member state's foreign policy. Only seeing or emphasizing one respect will lead to a misunderstanding of the EU. Moreover, as a unique "supranational and intergovernmental" organization in the world, the EU has too many complex institutions, names and terms. Of course, the situation is not better in the field of foreign policy, and it easily leads to confusion and misunderstanding. It is also necessary to point out that the EU is still in the process of evolvement, and in particular,