Making the EU a global actor

Date: 01/09/05

When EU foreign ministers gather in Wales this week (1-2 September), they will try to give the impression of business as usual. But the failure to ratify the EU constitution will be hanging over their heads.

The Union is continuing to operate in the external field. It is proceeding with the enlargement process albeit at a reduced momentum. It has established the European Defence Agency. It has developed new flexible diplomatic methods (such as the EU3 of France, Germany and the UK on Iran). It is running missions in the Balkans, Caucasus, Indonesia. But given the challenges facing the Union, more should be done. Steps could be taken now to enhance the EU's effectiveness in external affairs. Sooner or later, with or without a constitution, the European Commission's delegations in third countries will need to become Union delegations and it is important to prepare for this step.

One of the main ideas behind the proposal to establish an EU foreign minister was to achieve greater coherence in external policy. While the creation of this position would require a treaty change there are a number of steps that could nevertheless be considered, such as:

• The European Council could discharge the High Representative for Foreign Policy from his function as Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers thus allowing him to concentrate exclusively on foreign policy;
• the High Representative could be invited to participate in those Commission meetings that discuss external affairs. He should also be invited to meetings of the Relex group of commissioners and;
• there could be regular joint meetings of Commission and Council planning staffs with a view to establishing a common structure.

Given the increased salience of terrorism it is essential to have greater co-operation between foreign policy and justice and home affairs; there should be joint meetings of the respective Councils and their sub-structures.

Partly due to the six-monthly rotating presidency, the Union has struggled to achieve consistency in external affairs. Some measures to achieve greater consistency would include:

• Tasking the Council and Commission to prepare joint six-monthly reports on external policy priorities and implementation (encompassing enlargement, neighbourhood policy and development policy);
• increasing the number of officials from member states on secondment to those parts of the EU institutions dealing with external affairs, and;
• establishing a larger budget, a rapid reaction fund and simplified budgetary procedures for external affairs.

One of the constitution's aims was to give the EU greater visibility in external affairs. Measures to improve visibility would include:

• Seeking opportunities for the high representative to represent and speak in the name of the Union at international conferences. A good start would be at the UN session in September;
• instructing ambassadors in third countries holding the presidency to carry out EU instructions jointly with the Commission head of delegation, and;
• establishing an EU diplomatic academy to ensure some common training and bolster an esprit de corps among diplomats.

Since the EU will only be taken seriously if its diplomacy has teeth, the following steps should be taken to boost its capabilities:

• Fulfilling the aims outlined at the last capabilities conference, including the timetable for setting up battle groups;
• continuing to run successfully existing missions, notably in Bosnia;
• expanding the numbers foreseen under civilian capabilities, as dealing with failed states will remain a major challenge, and;
• improving the quality of political reporting and assessment (by training the Commission delegations' staff in political reporting or increasing the readiness of member states to share political and intelligence information).

There has been little involvement of national parliaments or the European Parliament in foreign policy debates and agenda setting. This should be changed:

• The reports on foreign policy and defence should be debated by the Parliament and national assemblies, to allow for a pan-European debate;
• the chairs of the foreign affairs committees in national parliaments and the Parliament should meet with the High Representative and commissioner for external affairs;
• the High Representative and the commissioner for external affairs should organise regular joint briefings for the media.

These steps could improve the effectiveness of the EU as a global actor, something that the majority of Europeans desire, according to opinion polls.

• Fraser Cameron is director of studies at the European Policy Centre. He writes here in a personal capacity.

Analysis feature in which the author, who is Director of Studies at the European Policy Centre, suggests steps that could improve the effectiveness of the EU as a global actor