New foreign policy body an opportunity EU cannot afford to miss, says report

23 May 2008

The only way for the UK and other EU countries to help to shape tomorrow's world is to act together within the EU. The EU currently performs inadequately in foreign policy and its arrangements, which developed informally from primitive beginnings, have not been fit for purpose. The changes to be made under the Lisbon Treaty will now give it more effective means to formulate and implement agreed common policies, and will help to generate the necessary political will among member states.

The appointment of a new High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (EUHR) who will also be chairman of the Foreign Affairs Council and Vice President (VP) of the European Commission, assisted by the proposed European External Action Service (EAS), planned for 2009, is designed to provide the EU with a more coherent foreign policy authority.

A new Chatham House Report, The European External Action Service: Roadmap for Success, sets out ten key policy recommendations that would ensure that the EAS is the most effective possible instrument for its task.

Brian Crowe, author of the report and a former adviser to Javier Solana, argues that, although success will depend, above all, on the political will of member states to agree and deliver common policies, the arrangements to formulate the policies, manage the decision-making process and then implement the policies are also crucial to success. However, the Lisbon Treaty gives very little guidance, let alone detail, and leaves plenty of room for inter-institutional friction and wrong turnings. This report seeks to provide a roadmap for the consideration of policy-makers and opinion-formers.

Above all, according to Brian Crowe, it is important that member states do not lose sight of the only objective in the Treaty for the EAS: assisting the EUHR/VP in the task of managing the EU's external relations. The full cooperation and support of member states will be needed to achieve this, including secondment of their best diplomats, a high priority to achieving common policies and a willingness to give the High Representative the lead in representing them.

The High Representative and the new EAS are 'an opportunity the EU cannot afford to miss', says Brian Crowe. His ten recommendations are:

The EUHR/VP must have the authority to fulfil his/her Treaty responsibility of coordinating effectively the external responsibilities of other Commissioners. He/she should have a deputy or deputies covering the whole EAS, i.e. the responsibilities for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and European Commission, including coordination.
EU delegations abroad should come under a unified administrative management reporting to the EUHR/VP.
The EAS should also support the President of the European Council in respect of his/her foreign policy responsibilities. There should be no alternative and inevitably competing foreign policy bureaucracy.
CFSP and Commission business should be handled in an integrated way by EAS geographical desks, which (along with the EAS missions overseas) should be neither in the Council nor the Commission but in a separate Agency.
Chairmanship of committees subordinate to the Foreign Affairs Council should be determined pragmatically, but guided where possible by the principle that the chair should be in the hierarchy managing the policy.
EU missions abroad should be used actively as the instrument for conducting the EU's business with third countries. Special Representatives will continue to be justified where a more regional approach, including shuttle diplomacy, is needed.
The assumption by the EAS and its missions abroad of functions on behalf of member states should be gradual, voluntary and only with the agreement of the EUHR/VP that the EAS's primary function of assisting him/her to run the EU's foreign and security policy is not undermined.
Priority should be given to ensuring high-quality staff for the EAS, including first-class secondees from member states. To ensure excellence without fear or favour, an independent panel should provide a short list of candidates from which the EUHR/VP can make final choices.
Commission, Council Secretariat and member states should encourage suitable and interested staff to consider secondment to the EAS, often more than once, as career-enhancing. They should release personnel for appropriate training and give priority to getting training programmes going.
The EAS will need strong management and a strong manager to assist the EUHR/VP.

Notes to editors:

The Chatham House Report, The European External Action Service: Roadmap for Success is written by Sir Brian Crowe and published on Tuesday 27 May 2008.

Sir Brian Crowe is the Deputy Chairman of Chatham House and a consultant and occasional lecturer, writer and instructor on EU and transatlantic affairs. He worked until 2002 for Javier Solana as Director General for External and Politico-Military Affairs in the EU Council of Ministers.

Contact:

Sir Brian Crowe
Direct: +44 (0)20 7828 6084
Mobile: +44 (0)7847 450770

Sean Armstrong
Press Officer
Chatham House
Direct: +44 (0) 20 7957 5739
Mobile: +44 (0) 78 4985 3757
Email: Sean Armstrong

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