Four-way talks on the establishment of the European External Action Service (EEAS) between the Parliament, Commission, Spanish rotating presidency and High Representative Catherine Ashton ended last week with no significant progress. Ms. Ashton’s proposal is that the diplomatic service be independent from the Commission, whereas Parliament demands that it must be attached to the Commission so as to ensure democratic scrutiny and to avoid areas that the EU treaties have declared to be under EC control from becoming intergovernmental.

Guy Verhofstadt MEP, who was present at the talks, said on Tuesday: “last night's discussion ... has unfortunately not led to any great progress on the EEAS dossier.”

“[The parliament] is prepared to move quickly on these issues — and indeed our initial report on the EEAS dates back to October last year — but so far we have seen little sign of movement from the Council,” he said.

In an attempt to gain the backing of Parliament, Ms. Ashton sent a letter to the EP budgetary committee promising that “parliament will have its full powers of discharge over the EEAS with me in the front line in terms of political accountability.” The High Representative has made important concessions so far, including commitments consult Parliament on the planning of election observation missions, slightly extend MEPs access to classified documents and inform Parliament about planned common foreign and security policy missions ahead of their deployment.

However, no agreement has yet been made on key areas of disagreement including development co-operation. The talks will resume in a week, with Ashton keen to obtain agreement before the EU Council meeting in June.

Source:

• EUobserver

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