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External competence refers to the power of the European Union ("EU") to act in external relations. In this respect, Article 5 (now Article 5.2 of the Treaty on European Union) of the Treaty establishing the European Community ("EC Treaty") (now the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ["TFEU"]) states that the EU must abide by the principle of "conferred powers". It follows from this provision that the EU has external competence only when it acts on the basis of an appropriate power. Power, therefore, may be expressly conferred under the provisions of the EC Treaty. However, in the absence of an express conferment of power, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") (now the Court of Justice of the European Union) held in Case 22/70 and Opinion 1/76 that the EU also has implied powers and, thereby, implied external competence. However, despite the importance of the doctrine of implied external competence as an instrument of European integration, its uncertainty causes problems between the EU and its Member States. In response to such uncertainty and the problems that it causes, this article critiques the development of the doctrine by the ECJ. In particular, the article assesses Opinion 1/03, as the most recent statement of the ECJ on the doctrine of implied external competence, in order to measure the level of doctrinal uncertainty. The article argues that, in Opinion 1/03, the ECJ changed its approach to the development of the doctrine of implied external competence. First, the article argues that Opinion 1/03 redefined the concept of exclusivity. The new definition not only takes into account the respective subject matter of international agreements and EU rules but it also examines the content, nature, and future foreseeable development of EU law in order to determine whether the relevant international agreements will affect it. Secondly, the article argues that, after Opinion 1/03, the condition of necessity no longer refers to the existence of EU external competence; rather, it now refers to its nature (that is, whether external competence is exclusive to the EU or whether it is shared with the Member States). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]