The Lisbon Treaty modified the legal framework of EU external action and these innovations must be applied in a period of deep economic and financial crisis interacting with other more specific crises affecting the EU's external activities. Piet Eeckhout is Professor of EU Law, and Academic Director of UCL's European Institute. From 1 August 2017 he is Dean of UCL Faculty of Laws. Before joining UCL in 2012, he was Director of the Centre of European Law, at King's College London (1998-2012).