Row brewing over EU foreign affairs ministry

Date: 26/06/03

By Dana Spinant

A NEW fight is looming between European Commission President Romano Prodi and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, chairman of the Convention on Europe's future, over the creation of an external affairs ministry, headed by a future EU Foreign Minister.

The Convention's inner circle, the praesidium, is expected to propose the establishment of a foreign affairs service, drawing together Commission and Council of Ministers officials, as well as national diplomats seconded by foreign affairs ministries.

The plan is set to be discussed during the Convention's last plenary sessions, on 4 and 9-10 July. This is the most significant item the Convention will attempt to add to part three of the draft constitutional treaty, which covers the Union's policies.

However, the Commission opposes the move. It claims provisions for the creation of an external affairs service are not "constitutional matters" and should therefore not be dealt with in the constitution.

But, in fact, Prodi's team is against setting up a foreign affairs ministry separate from the Commission, one commissioner told European Voice. Such a ministry would be an independent institution, and, they fear, it would take powers over external relations away from the Commission.

Instead, Prodi wants the Commission's present external relations directorate-general, DG RELEX, to be beefed up and transformed into an effective foreign affairs ministry.

"We [the Commission] are now the diplomatic corps of the community, through our delegations to third countries. We also have an experienced DG RELEX service. Why create a separate institution as a back-up to the minister?" one Commission spokesman asked.

In addition, he says, the decision to create a separate foreign affairs ministry is not a "technical question", but a highly political one.

It should, therefore, not be sneaked into the draft treaty as if it was a technical detail.

However, Convention officials say the claim that a future EU foreign affairs ministry should be developed within the Commission is completely unrealistic.

"The Commission apparently forgot that we are talking about a double-hatting, about a [Foreign Affairs] Minister which is a member of the Commission but receives his mandate from the Council [of Ministers]," said one Convention official.

"Logically, if he is meant to wear two hats, if he is between the two institutions, than he cannot have a service based at the Commission," he added. "It wouldn't be a double-hatting anymore."

The post of the future minister would merge into one the two posts currently held by Chris Patten, the external relations commissioner, and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Javier Solana.

"If it is a merger of the two, then his or her service should also be a fusion of the present services, to result in a separate service. It [the ministry] must be outside the Council and the Commission, and it has always been understood this way," the forum's official added.

According to one member of the Convention's praesidium, the forum will not go into details about the organization of such a ministry. It will only indicate the institutions from which officials will be drawn (Commission, Council and national foreign ministries).

The forum is also set to give a mandate and a deadline to member states to adopt a decision about the details of setting up such a ministry. However, the official admits the Commission will have to be associated somehow with this decision.

The staunchest supporter of the plan to create an EU foreign affairs ministry is Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister. Fischer, a prominent Convention member, is allegedly interested in becoming the first head of such a ministry.

President of the European Commission, Romano Prosi, and European Convention President, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, are at odds over the possible creation of an EU foreign affairs ministry under the proposed draft constitution.