At the annual meeting of the EU delegations, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell reproached the assembled diplomats: too slow, too little visibility, too inefficient. But they are the wrong addressees.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
This is certainly not how the EU ambassadors imagined the annual meeting of the European External Action Service (the Union’s “Foreign Ministry”). Her boss, the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, received her with a veritable lecture at the beginning of the week.
The Spaniard said he was tired of being informed about important events in the world by the media instead of by his delegations. “You have to be on duty 24 hours a day and report even if all the details are not yet clear.” The field service maintains 139 delegations in third countries and international organizations worldwide. He has 3700 employees. Quite undiplomatically, Borrell made it clear that the heads of delegations were too sluggish and too risk-averse for him.
Borrell said they should model themselves on member states’ more efficient diplomats. Now the time has come for the sales force to dare something. After Russia’s attack on Ukraine, taboos would also have to be broken. Brussels did this by supplying arms to Ukraine via the European Peace Facility. “You too must now do things that you have not done before,” Borrell called to his diplomats.
Right analysis at the wrong address
What is to be made of this Capuchin sermon? The EU expert Ronja Kempin from the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin has several answers. She was amazed at the tone and the choice of words, even if Borrell was known to be an impulsive type. In fact, however, a distinction must be made between the analysis and the addressees. Borrell’s frustration that the EU has hardly pursued foreign policy in recent years resonates in the speech. His frustration is understandable.
Although Donald Trump’s presidency was a wake-up call for Europeans to think about common interests, no foreign policy strategy had been developed. Neighborhood policy, but also enlargement policy, have come to a standstill in recent years. But that is not the fault of the EU ambassadors around the world. Borrell’s criticism goes to the wrong address.
Rather, the reason for the longstanding passivity of the Union is the disagreement between the member states, says Kempin. They could not agree on a common line on important issues. Inactivity has repeatedly opened up spaces for other actors in Africa, the Balkans and the South Caucasus, in which powers such as Russia, China and Turkey have established themselves.
Borrell had warned long before the war in Ukraine that the world situation would become more uncomfortable and that the EU would have to learn the “language of power”. In the “Strategic Compass” presented at the beginning of the year – the most important basic security policy document of the EU to date – you can read what this means: better crisis management, new strategic partnerships, more military competence and determination.
But can the sales force play a role here? In the candidate countries in the Balkans or in the partner countries in Eastern Europe, the EU delegations have so far played the role of schoolmasters, following the reforms of the countries more or less closely and handing out grades once a year. Back in the days when the EU was serious about enlargement, this was an important political moment. For the past ten years, the “progress reports” have received little public attention.
The embassies of the large member states have a much greater political weight than the EU delegations in these countries. Their heads of mission often enjoy celebrity status in the country. It is hardly conceivable that their foreign ministries would let the EU delegations go first in the future.
The field service has no home power
There are structural reasons for this. As the servants of two masters in Brussels, the sales force is always in a tricky situation. The foreign affairs officer is also the deputy commission president. But its service is not fully integrated with the Commission. He cannot develop positions autonomously, but ultimately must always follow the line of the Council of Heads of State and Government. Because that’s where the power sits and plays the music, but often not very harmoniously. And without the support of the large member states, the hands of the foreign policy officer are tied anyway.
Borrell lacks the authority and political weight to coordinate foreign policy between the Commission and the member states. For the former top Austrian diplomat Stefan Lehne, the foreign service is nothing more than a secretariat in the service of the foreign policy machinery of the Union.
That probably explains Borrell’s impatience better than his southern temperament. Like many others, he feels that the EU has to “mature” in foreign policy if it wants to prove itself in the face of competition from the major powers. Ronja Kempin puts it in a nutshell: foreign policy, economic policy and security policy must always be considered together if Europe does not want to become dependent on partners and opponents after the fatal experience with Russia. Whether the sales force can also play a role is uncertain. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Borrell’s employer, contradicted the Spaniard quite clearly on Wednesday. At a similar event with the EU ambassadors, she expressly thanked them for the “excellent work you are doing”.