The EU's foreign and security policy lagged behind its many other achievements, the European Commissioner for External Relations, Mr Chris Patten, said in Dublin last night.
Delivering the third annual Brian Lenihan Memorial Lecture, he said: "It is about time we developed a global outlook.
"The European Union has every reason to strut its stuff: boasting its achievements, shaping events and spreading its values."
The EU had become a global player: "As the biggest market, largest trader and most important purveyor of assistance, it is about time we developed a global outlook in a coherent view of what we are, what we want and where we are going."
Speaking to the Institute of European Affairs, Mr Patten said that in ratifying the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties, Europe's leaders had shown their determination to create a common foreign and security policy worthy of the name.
