Turf battle delays foreign mission reform

Date: 18/06/1998

By Mark Turner

LONG-standing proposals to overhaul the European Commission's overseas representations should finally be ready in July, around a month later than originally envisaged.

But the final shape of the reform remains unclear, as Commissioners with responsibility for external relations fight for their geographical patches and the European Parliament calls for a fundamental reassessment of the institution's foreign staffing policy.

Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan is, for example, pushing strongly for a new delegation in Taiwan - a politically sensitive move for China - and is under pressure to open one in Malaysia.

Foreign Affairs Commissioner Hans van den Broek wants more representation in the former Soviet Union, including a new mission in Azerbaijan, and faces demands for more self-sufficient delegations in the applicant countries of central and eastern Europe.

Meanwhile, the Directorate-General for development (DGVIII) is desperate not to lose more staff as interest in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) wanes.

As a classic turf battle develops, MEPs have reiterated calls for a more professional and homogenous Commission foreign service with clear and coherent aims.

The Commission currently has 104 fully-fledged delegations, and is represented in 128 countries and international organisations.

But critics say the development of its external representations has in the past lacked any long-term strategy, depending more on the characters and influence of individual Commissioners than policy priorities.

The first missions were set up in the 1960s and 1970s as Europe developed relations with former French, and later British and Portuguese colonies.

This period also saw a proliferation of delegations to multilateral institutions and industrialised countries. In the late 1970s, the Commission began to establish a presence in Asia, and moved into Latin America in the 1980s. Finally, offices were opened along the Mediterranean rim and in the former Soviet bloc.

Dutch Liberal MEP Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, the Parliament's rapporteur on the issue, stresses the need to balance the requirements of different regions with resources and to reflect the missions' modern role as trade delegations rather than aid distributors.

He is also demanding that 25 to 30 Brussels staff be sent to eastern Europe to monitor technical assistance programmes to replace previously inefficient Phare management units.

Until this is done, says Brinkhorst, the Parliament will withhold more than 13 million ecu (around 10%) of the delegations' budget.

Commission insiders say the changes will be similar in scale to a first-stage review in 1996, when it downgraded ten fully fledged delegations to 'offices'.

Commission to launch proposals to reform its overseas delegations.