24The institutions and agencies of the Union have available to them, in the conduct of external relations, a broad discretion in policy decisions. As the United Kingdom, the Parliament and the Council have stated in the procedure before the Court, the conduct of external relations necessarily implies policy choices. The Union must, therefore, be in a position to choose its policies and to apply, according to the objectives that it pursues, a distinction between third countries, without being obliged to grant equal treatment to all third countries. The effect of the exercise of external policy prerogatives by the institutions and agencies of the Union may therefore be that the treatment of one third country differs from that of other third countries.
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