Turf wars threaten EU diplomatic corps

By Kirsty Hughes
Writer on European affairs

The new foreign policy chief will have a far bigger job

European officials and diplomats are working to establish the scope and control of the EU's future foreign policy, including a new European diplomatic service.

Assuming the union's new Lisbon Treaty is eventually ratified by all 27 member states, then 1 January 2009 should see a very different Europe facing the world.

Two new posts should bring new coherence in Europe's global role:

• A permanent European Council president chairing leaders' summits;
• A new foreign policy chief - a "high representative" - to unify much of the EU's external policies through a new European diplomatic corps.

Outsiders will finally know which telephone number to call in an international crisis.

Two hats

The new foreign policy chief will have a "double-hatted" position.

It will combine the job of current foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who represents the views of the member states, with that of European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who controls much of the EU's external aid spending.

The debate for now is behind closed doors, not least as no-one wants to upset Irish voters before their referendum

This new European "foreign minister" will chair the regular meetings of EU foreign ministers and have two bosses: the presidents of the European Commission and European Council.

It's a huge job.

While many of Europe's political commentators are preoccupied with who gets the top posts, Brussels officials are plotting over the more important questions of what the new president and foreign minister will do, and the scale and control of the new European diplomatic service.

Diplomatic corps

The debate, for now, is behind closed doors, not least as no-one wants to upset Irish voters before their 12 June referendum on the treaty.

"We've been told not to talk about it, and not to think about it," says one European Commission official.

The EU's Kosovo mission

But as one EU official explains: "Before people wake up to this debate, most of the structures will be set."

Does any of this matter?

The EU and its member states are the largest development aid providers in the world and are attempting to lead globally on climate change.

It is the world's largest trade bloc, and increasingly the EU is getting involved in crisis management and conflict prevention from Congo and East Timor to Kosovo.

So, for supporters of the Lisbon Treaty, coherent EU external policies underpinned by a diplomatic corps will ensure this "soft power" has much bigger impact on the ground.

But launching the "European External Action Service" requires merging into one department not only external relations eurocrats from the two Brussels institutions - the council and the commission - but also diplomats on secondment from the member states.

Will it be a power grab by the council… or by the commission or will it be a genuinely equal fusion? Richard Corbett British Labour MEP

Around the globe, European Commission delegations will become "EU delegations" from 1 January 2009.

This is sparking off a big bun fight, as member states jostle for some of these coveted diplomatic positions, while commission and council tussle over who goes into the new body.

"Will it be a power grab by the council… or by the commission? Or will it be a genuinely equal fusion?" asks British Labour MEP Richard Corbett.

Efficiency drive

The European Parliament also wants a say, something many member states will want to minimise.

Some wiser heads are hoping that the new European diplomatic corps really will bring coherence and clout to Europe's external action.

But they worry that turf-fighting could neuter the new body at birth.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is said to favour a narrow definition of the new diplomatic corps: keeping it away from current commission departments such as trade, development, enlargement and environment.

British Liberal Democrat MEP Andrew Duff thinks Mr Barroso and his advisers are being extremely cautious: "I think everyone accepts trade and enlargement are out. But the biggest area of indecision is development."

One diplomat says both Spain and Germany have shown some support, in closed-door discussions, for bringing development within the new body.

According to another diplomat, some favour this approach even within the European Commission.

Money may drive some of this, with talk of scaling back existing resources.

"You end duplication of geographical desks within and across commission and council and have only one set in the European external action service," says one diplomat.

Defence policy

Another sensitive issue is the EU's nascent defence and security policy and its linked military staff.

EU mission to Chad

Some doubt that France and the UK will want defence or military matters to go into the new diplomatic corps, though for opposite reasons.

France fears it may reduce chances of strengthening European defence policy - the UK worries those chances may increase.

But this could leave the EU's civilian crisis management teams inside the new diplomatic corps, and military crisis management outside, creating confusion, not coherence.

France, heading the EU's rotating presidency in the second half of 2008, will have a key role in brokering a deal.

Andrew Duff says the UK is causing problems: "The Brits are being completely indecisive…[Prime Minister Gordon] Brown has not addressed this… and the French are frustrated with them."

Gordon Brown will have to decide soon. EU leaders are likely to have informal discussions about this at their June summit.

Protocol nightmare

Final decisions would then happen rather quickly in the autumn.

And whatever scope the new European diplomatic corps has, its new head will face the tricky task of having two EU presidents - for the council and commission - wanting their share of the foreign policy action.

Visiting US or Russian presidents at bilateral summits will find these three figures lined up to greet them.

Opinions vary in Brussels on who is top dog of this foreign policy trio - a protocol nightmare.

And the foreign policy head's job is so big he or she will probably need deputies - cue more in-fighting for those jobs.

No-one should imagine that the turf-fighting will stop when the Lisbon Treaty - with its new diplomatic service and foreign policy chief - come into being at the start of 2009.

Most likely, it will only just be beginning.