EU foreign ministers may become envoys
Group of foreign ministers float the idea that they should become occasional envoys for the EU’s new foreign policy chief.
A small group of EU foreign ministers who met informally this weekend in Finland have suggested that the EU’s foreign ministers might serve as special EU envoys when Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, is unable to travel.
The host of the gathering, Alexander Stubb, Finland’s foreign minister, said the meeting was called with the aim of lending support to Ashton as she seeks to finalise plans for a new EU diplomatic corps created by the Treaty of Lisbon, which came into force in December.
Plans for the European External Action Service (EEAS) are due to be presented by April, but progress has been slow. The principal reasons are turf battles over which parts of the European Commission’s external relations departments should be transferred to the new service.
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Stubb said, however, that some of the other difficulties Ashton is facing are due to an “existential crisis” among EU foreign ministers, who face having their roles reduced in the system reformed by the Lisbon treaty.
Stubb said that many foreign ministers were “very disappointed” they no longer participated in European Councils, the regular meetings of EU leaders. The treaty also stipulates that the high representative should chair meetings of EU foreign ministers instead of the foreign minister of the country that currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU.
But Stubb said that ministers had to accept the changes brought about by Lisbon. “Give the powers and prerogatives to Ashton and the External Action Service. Otherwise, you won’t have a European foreign policy,” he told European Voice.
Franco Frattini, Italy’s foreign minister, rejected the suggestion that EU foreign ministers were going through an existential crisis, saying that the discussions had focused on “dossiers and issues”. He also expressed strong support for Ashton, because it was important that “Europe spoke with a single voice”.
One of the ideas to improve the EU’s ability to co-ordinate and project foreign policy was to use ministers as special envoys to represent Ashton in important regions and countries, as she will not have time to visit all areas of interest to the EU. Ashton welcomed this idea, saying that work to improve EU foreign policy was “about creating an opportunity for one voice, but that voice doesn’t have to be mine”. She said it would make sense to draw on the expertise and knowledge of foreign ministers.
Bernard Kouchner, France’s foreign minister, has already represented Ashton at an international meeting in Canada on Haiti. Stubb said that Miguel Ángel Moratinos, Spain’s foreign minister and another of the attendees, could stand in for Ashton in the Middle East.
Stubb said that other topics discussed over the weekend included relations with the EU’s neighbours and with major strategic partners such as the US, Russia, China and India.
Kouchner described the informal meeting – held in log cabins in Saariselkä in Lapland – as very useful, because it had given a small group of ministers time to discuss important issues. “We must have such small groups…devoted to some particular questions,” he said. Stubb has already said he would like to hold further meetings in Finland in the coming years.
Other ministers at the meeting were Estonia’s Urmas Paet, Sweden’s Carl Bildt and Turkey’s Ahmet Davutoğlu. Stubb had also invited the foreign ministers of two other EU states – Germany and the UK – and of Norway, but they were unable to attend.