EU FOREIGN policy chief Catherine Ashton has set out a sweeping vision for the diplomatic service to be set up on her watch, a body that will take over many functions now carried out by the European Commission.
As European governments seek to assert their influence in complex talks under way, many participants believe Baroness Ashton may not be able to forge a deal on the new body until long after she formalises her own proposals next month.
Talks on the new diplomatic corps, to be known as the European External Action Service (EEAS), are set to intensify in the coming days amid differing views as to its structure, financing and staffing.
Key issues such as whether the EEAS or the commission should take the lead for the EU in climate change negotiations remain to be agreed, crucial given the union’s exclusion from the meeting that led to the Copenhagen accord last December.
Also in question is the timing of when diplomats serving national foreign ministries move to the EEAS, the number of diplomats coming from each member state and the seniority of the positions they take.
EU ambassadors will discuss the plans in Brussels today and EU foreign ministers are expected to take stock of the situation at an informal meeting this weekend in Córdoba, Spain.
In a series of position papers, Baroness Ashton makes it clear that the EEAS will be placed under her authority as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Citing the need to ensure consistency and better co-ordination in the union’s work, the papers say the EEAS will “assist” and provide “coherent policy advice and briefing” to the president of the European Council and the president and members of the commission.
It is widely expected that the commission’s external relations division will transfer into the EEAS, as will delegations throughout the world that previously served the EU executive.
Still at issue, however, is the extent to which the EEAS directs multibillion-euro development projects now in the commission’s remit.
Baroness Ashton’s papers say development aid and co-operation are essential components of the EU’s “toolbox”, and that the EEAS will play an important role in bringing together “the many levers of influence that the EU has”. They say the programming requires a clear decision on the allocation of responsibilities between the EEAS and the commission for “political and financial reasons”. They suggest the EEAS could lead on country allocations, strategy papers, and national and regional indicative programmes, with the commission leading “the third and subsequent stages”.
As an alternative, they say the commission could lead on African, Caribbean and Pacific region countries with the EEAS leading in Asia and Latin America.
“The programming and implementation cycle will be managed in close co-ordination between the EEAS, delegations and the relevant services of the commission, and between the high representative in her role as vice-president and the competent commissioners. This co-ordination process will result in collegial commission decisions.”
