Steven Blockmans

Steven Blockmans is a senior research fellow and the head of the 'EU foreign policy' and 'politics and institutions' units of CEPS, Professor of EU External Relations Law and Governance at the University of Amsterdam (part-time) and one of the founding members of the Centre for the Law of EU External Relations (CLEER). His expertise lies at the crossroads of international and EU law and governance. He has published widely on the institutional structures for EU external action, the Union’s role in global governance, norm promotion (inside out) and norm absorption (outside in), the EU enlargement policy, relations with neighbouring countries, Common Foreign and Security Policy, Common Security and Defence Policy, trade, development, and humanitarian aid. He is the author of ‘Tough Love: the EU’s relations with the Western Balkans’ (AP/CUP 2007) and the (co-)editor of 15 volumes, including ‘The EU's Role in Global Governance’ (OUP 2013), ‘Differentiated Integration in the EU: From the Inside Looking Out’ (CEPS 2014) and ‘EU-Iran Relations After the Nuclear Deal’ (CEPS 2016). He served as co-rapporteur of the CEPS Task Force on ‘More Union in European Defence’ chaired by Javier Solana (2015). For almost 20 years, he has carried out numerous research and technical assistance projects in wider Europe and in Asia for the institutions of the EU and governments of EU member states and third countries. From 2010 to 2014, he was special visiting professor at the University of Leuven. From 2005 to 2010, he was a lecturer in the in-service training provided by the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) for DG Relex and other external relations DGs of the European Commission. From 2007 to 2009 he served as a long-term expert on legal approximation in the framework of an EU-sponsored project in support for the Ministry of European Integration of Albania. Steven holds a PhD in law from Leiden University.