Diplomat corps joins treaty in ‘cold storage’

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 09/06/05

Senior EU diplomats this week poured cold water on the chances of establishing a European diplomatic service in the near future following the rejection of the constitutional treaty by France and the Netherlands.

Despite insistence by the EU's High Representative for Foreign Policy, Javier Solana, that work to establish the External Action Service should continue, diplomats said political and legal considerations now cast doubts on the establishment of the Union's diplomatic corps.

"If you think the treaty is dead, or how shall we say, in cold storage, then so is this," said one senior diplomat. "There is a democratic question and I think that people will be very cautious about implementing bits of a treaty."

The constitution envisages the creation of a post of EU foreign minister sitting both in the Council of Ministers and the European Commission and who would head the diplomatic service. The minister would tie together the EU's two major institutions creating a powerful foreign policy tool.

The diplomat argued that while it was possible to set up the service under the current treaties, the function of EU foreign minister could not be created without a treaty change.

"What seems to me to be difficult is to create this without having somebody as head of it. It seems to me to be difficult to have a joint service without a joint head and a joint head needs a treaty change. I think there is a legal problem. And that is, really to make this thing function, you do need a treaty change," he said, adding that "it does not look as though changing the treaty is on the agenda".

A senior Council official agreed that the service's fate was tied to the constitution, adding that preparatory work, which began almost eight months ago, was now in limbo.

EU leaders meeting in Brussels next week (16-17 June) will be presented with a report on the progress made towards establishing the service, but according to the diplomat, "given the state of debate I am not sure it is a priority".

Their comments signal the emergence of differences of opinion at the highest levels of policymaking about the wisdom of pressing ahead with the service in the wake of the French and Dutch 'No' votes.

Others, including Solana, who has been appointed EU foreign minister-in-waiting and head of the service, pending the constitution's entry into force, have strongly called for work on the service to continue.

"Neither the constitutional text nor the ideas contained in it are dead," Solana told journalists the day after the French vote.

"Even if the constitution was rejected in France, I think that it is suitable to keep on working on the establishment of an European External Action Service," he said.

But sources say that Solana's own entourage found his comments in the wake of the French vote "courageous".

"There is a clear split between him and senior Council officials in charge of foreign affairs," one official said.

"The legal and political ground for the service has become shaky, we should be more careful now not to spoil the chances for the service to ever see the daylight by giving the impression that we plan to introduce it through the back door."

The head of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, Elmar Brok, has called for preparations to carry on. "Nobody has postponed the procedure," he said in reference to the ratification of the constitution, "for sure the work should continue".

The senior diplomat remarked that considering the "amount of interest" on the idea of setting up an EU diplomatic service, "it probably will happen sooner or later, although sooner or later are quite different things".

Article reports on the current debate whether to go ahead with the planning of the European External Action Service in spite of the negative results in the French and Dutch referendums on the European Constitution, 29 May and 1 June 2005.