EU GOVERNMENTS are jockeying for position as preparations advance for the establishment of the union’s External Action Service (EAS), as its diplomatic corps will be known, amid disquiet at the level of British influence in the management of the union’s foreign policy.
Although EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will not publish her plans for the new institution until next month, the union’s major players are campaigning to secure prime posts for their officials.
A leaked German paper that said Britain has assumed an “excessive” and “over-proportionate” role in EU foreign policy is seen by senior officials in Brussels as a pre-emptive strike against any attempt by Baroness Ashton to appoint a fellow-Briton to the post of EAS director general.
The position, akin to that of the secretary general of an Irish Government department, will be critical to the evolution of the EAS.
British diplomat Robert Cooper, who is director general of foreign policy in the European Council, is in some quarters seen as an obvious contender for job.
However, informed sources said it would be politically impossible for Baroness Ashton to appoint him. Instead, they said, Mr Cooper could well take the post of political director in the EAS, an influential position in the upper tier of the institution.
While the assignment of key posts could yet be far away, well-versed sources said the issue was “live” in diplomatic circles in Brussels. “Every foreign ministry has exactly the same objective: to get as many of their people in as possible,” one said.
Both Germany and France are said to have set their sights on the top civil service post in the EAS. However, their position may be weakened by the fact that they have already struck a deal for own officials to rotate the top administrative position in the European Council.
French EU official Pierre de Boissieu, was last autumn appointed secretary general of the European Council, which is the assembly of EU governments. The top EU advisor to the German government, Uwe Corsepsius, is expected to take that role in succession to Mr de Boissieu at the end of his mandate.
Also at issue is the extent to which the management of union’s multibillion-euro development budget transfers into the EAS from the European Commission, the union’s executive body. Similar questions surround the commission’s neighbourhood policy, as its engagement with countries on the union’s hinterland and external borders is known.
Whereas the commission sees the EAS as a body primarily for the management of the union’s foreign and security policy, sources said Germany and France wanted to its remit to include large parts of the development and neighbourhood policies.