Control of EU foreign service up for grabs

By Dana Spinant

Date: 04/11/04

WITH the signing of the EU constitution on 29 October, preparations for an EU foreign ministry can kick off officially.

The Union's future diplomatic service, a support team for the EU foreign minister, is set to open in 2006, when the EU constitution is expected to enter into force - if ratified by all member states. National government leaders stipulated that preparations should start only once the constitution was signed, but reflection on the Union's first ever diplomatic service is already advanced.

Two problems in particular preoccupy the planners: the rivalry between the European Commission, the Council of Ministers and the member states over controlling the ministry and the question of how many diplomats member states should second to the ministry.

Javier Solana, who was appointed by the Union's leaders as the first EU foreign minister, set up a taskforce to study the likely composition of the new service. Currently the Union's high representative for foreign and security policy, Solana plans to present his ideas to José Manuel Barroso as soon as the president-elect of the new Commission takes office. A report was meant to be sent to Barroso this week, but the Portuguese's decision to withdraw his initial team and present a new one to the European Parliament delayed its presentation.

Rivalries between the Commission, Council diplomats and member states' foreign ministries are complicating plans for the creation of the EU's foreign service. Each group is eager to ensure that it will constitute the biggest part of the service and will be able to control it.

One of the uncertainties is how big the ministry will be. Estimates range from a minimalist scenario (a few hundred diplomats, built around the Council's policy planning and early warning unit, which advises Solana, plus some Commission and member states officials) to a maximalist one (up to 20,000). The most likely scenario is around 7,000 diplomats.

"Each of the three [the Commission, Council, member states] will have to have roughly comparable parts in the ministry," one Commission official said.

"If you start from this consideration and think that the Commission's present Relex [external relations] service will be transferred to the future ministry, you get to something like 6,000-7,000 people."

From within the Commission, supporters of a bigger EU foreign ministry plead for bringing together all Commission services with links with external relations (Relex, development aid, some parts of external trade, and enlargement and neighbourhood directorates-general), as well as the Commission's delegations in third countries. The EU executive has a network of 130 delegations staffed by more than 5,000 people, of whom 800 are EU officials.

However, Council officials and diplomats from the member states oppose this scenario. "It would either mean that the Commission has a disproportionate part in the ministry," one Council diplomat explained, "or that the other parts will be proportionally enlarged to match the number of Commission officials, which would mean that you would get a gigantic EU ministry."

"Neither of these is acceptable," he added.

The most likely scenario, a Commission official dealing with external relations said, is that just the Commission's Relex service plus units from all directorates-general dealing with common foreign and security policy, would be included in the new service. From the Council, the directorate-general E, in charge of external relations, the policy planning and early warning unit and the staff of the military committee would be moved to the new service.

In addition, national diplomats would be seconded by foreign affairs ministries. A delicate question is whether all member states should be entitled to an equal number of diplomats in the service. One Council official is clear: "Definitely not. Malta cannot send the same number of diplomats as Germany, it would not be acceptable - or would deprive the Maltese foreign ministry of most of its diplomats specializing in the EU," he said. "But this cannot be said like that," he added. "It would never be clearly stated, a vaguer formula will be found, something like 'each member states should send at least X number of diplomats', etc."

Although this embryonic foreign ministry is aimed at giving the Union greater clout on the world scene, it has some enemies.

Barroso is said not to be very keen on it, as he fears that it could become an independent institution, taking powers over external relations away from the Commission. "This nervousness is normal," said a diplomat in one of the Commission's delegations.

"For the moment the Commission has a rather strong external relations service and a big network of delegations throughout the world. Some of that will be dragged away from the Commission to the ministry. But what if the ministry ends up being controlled by the member states?"

In addition, the authority conferred on the EU foreign minister by the constitution (he would chair the foreign ministers' meetings, for instance) might incur the envy of national foreign ministers. That could make their relationship more complicated.

And Solana himself is said to be uneasy about the position. The complex connection of the foreign minister with both the Commission (he would be a vice-president under Barroso) and the Council (he would take his instructions and respond to the Council) provokes doubts about the effectiveness of the post.

"He would never say that publicly, but Solana is less than enthusiastic about it, for the moment," said one diplomat. "And some at the Council of Ministers, let alone the member states, would rather have the constitution rejected than have a foreign ministry."

Article reports on reflections on the European Union's future diplomatic service, a support team for the EU foreign minister, which is set to open in 2006, provided the Constitutional Treaty is ratified by all Member States. Two problems in particular preoccupied the planners: the rivalry between the European Commission, the Council of Ministers and the member states over controlling the ministry and the question of how many diplomats member states should second to the ministry.