8| F ROM SELF ­DOUBT TO SELF ­ASSURANCE (in Council formations, working groups and agencies such as EU SATCEN, for example). The Commission’s unique expertise is an obvious point of reference in this regard. Another key asset at the disposal of the EEAS is the extraordinary pool of expertise that seconded national diplomats provide. Beyond the information gleaned from PSC discussions, these diplomats offer insights into what each member state thinks in terms of foreign policy. They have an ability to explain underlying trends and historical legacies, and thus to assist the EEAS into engineering policy initiatives that take different national concerns and perspectives on board. This is a resource the EEAS needs to tap, also to increase member state buy-in down the line. In the same vein, Seconded National Experts(SNEs) constitute an extra cognitive resource on an ad hoc basis. For the EU.INTCEN and EUMS.INT, analysts and experts seconded from member states’ intelligence and security services build the core capacity of those specific EEAS’ directorates which produce intelligence supported civil and military situational awareness to EU decision making. In short, based on the expertise it can gather from within and across the EU family, the EEAS has the potential to operate as a factory of ideas, exerting thought-leadership on the politics of global issues, and generating innovative ways of conducting European diplomacy to position the EU more strategically. The EEAS can be a point of reference for all stakeholders who should have a genuine interest in using the distinctly European analysis that the Service has the capacity, and key task, to develop and provide. It can also articulate the cognitive input to stimulate a more audacious use of the High Representative’s right of initiative. Representation: the EEAS as the face of the Union in the field The Treaty of Lisbon transformed the Commission’s delegations around the world into EU delegations(EUDs). Administratively belonging to the EEAS, the more than 140 delegations and offices represent the EU as a whole to the rest of the world: in third countries, international conferences and at international organisations. They(and the EU’s Special Representatives – ‘EUSRs’) act in close cooperation with member states’ diplomatic and consular missions to contribute to the formulation and implementation of the common positions and external actions of the Union, thus fostering the sense of a common European diplomatic community to which all European(EU and member states) diplomats on the ground belong. This novel‘whole-of-Europe’ approach by the EEAS to representing the EU is derived from the hybrid nature of the HRVP’s position whose office holder has, as said, the power to represent the EU across the whole spectrum of the Union’s competences: as HR on CFSP matters and as VP of the Commission in areas where the Commission enjoys representation prerogatives. This allows the delegations to be the face(eyes, ears and mouth) of the whole Union abroad. The network of EUDs is a formidable asset at the disposal of the EU foreign policy machinery, a critical element of the EEAS’ added value and legitimacy. It practically and conspicuously contributes to all the core EEAS functions. The wide geographical coverage of the EUDs network allows a global visibility for the Union. All the more so as, like the EEAS headquarters and the HRVP they serve, delegations cover the whole spectrum of EU activities. They thereby embody