Ashton presents proposal for EU foreign service

Proposal still needs member states’ approval; MEPs to vote on staff and finance rules.

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Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, has submitted her proposal for the Union’s new diplomatic service – the European External Action Service (EEAS) – to the EU’s national governments, whose leaders are meeting today in Brussels.

Her proposal has been politically endorsed by the European Commission, of which she is a vice-president, but might yet be amended by the member states.

The proposal describes the EEAS as a“functionally autonomous body” of the EU. It envisages that most of the Commission departments currently dealing with foreign policy issues will be transferred, together with the staff working in them, to the new service, which will also include officials from the secretariat-general of the Council of Ministers and diplomats from the member states.

“It is a huge opportunity to deliver on the promise of the Lisbon treaty,” Ashton said today. “The service will be a joined-up service which promotes comprehensive policies in a strategic manner.” She added that the EU would be able to punch its weight only if it could bring together “all instruments in support of a single political strategy” in the EEAS.

Under Ashton’s proposal, the day-to-day management of the EEAS will rest with a secretary-general, assisted by two deputies. The service will operate the EU’s delegations around the world, whose heads – senior EEAS officials – will have authority over all delegation staff, including Commission officials who are not members of the EEAS.

Ashton’s proposal now has to win the approval of the member states and could still undergo changes before being adopted, possibly at a meeting of
Europe ministers in Brussels at the end of April.

“We will move forward as fast as we can,” Ashton said today. She also made it clear that the service’s set-up might be modified once it starts operating
later this year. “This is the starting point, not the finishing point,” she said.

The new set-up also requires amending the EU’s staff and financial regulations, which then have to be approved both by member states and the European Parliament. Draft amendments are currently under discussion between the Commission and staff unions.

The proposal foresees that Ashton should submit estimated costs to the
Commission within one month of the EEAS being established so that the
Commission can draft its budget.

Ashton said that member states had raised the issue of geographical balance in the new service and vowed to work towards that goal, as well as towards gender balance. There is broad agreement that around
one-third of the EEAS staff come from member states, but smaller states that joined the EU recently fear that they might be under-represented. She said that the EEAS would see “steady growth” in numbers once established.

A dispute between the Commission and the member states over control of
development spending has been settled in favour of the member states. Implementation of development policies will remain in the hands of the
Commission but decision-making will move to the EEAS.

Ashton said that she would work closely with Andris Piebalgs, the European commissioner for development, to ensure coherence. The same applies to the EU’s policy towards its neighbours in eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. “We generally agreed that the service will follow the
principle of single thematic and geographic desks,” she said, which means that the EEAS will have desks dealing with all countries and regions of the
world.

Authors:
Toby Vogel 

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