EEAS to be reviewed
After two years of activity, the European External Action Service (EEAS) – the European Union’s foreign affairs arm – is facing a review this year. A number of areas are to be addressed, such as bureaucratic issues, institutional dynamic, organisation, transparency, accountability and others. The review process comes right before Catherine Ashton will pass on the position of High Representative to her successor.
One of the problems that the EEAS has had to deal with since its inception is the morale of the staff working for it as people coming from various places – Commission, Council and Member States – had difficulties working together. If this situation continues, the EU will not be able to develop holistic policies that bring together foreign affairs with competences from other policy areas.
Aside from trying to address these kinds of issues, a focus of the review will be on providing the High Representative with a number of deputies that can ease the work load of the incumbent leader of the EEAS. Some of the questions in need of answering however have to do with the number of deputy posts to be created, their responsibilities and powers etc.
However, the review process has barely started. Germany has presented a non-paper on the matter, the European Parliament is preparing a resolution and various think-tanks have expressed some ideas as to what can be done. The EU foreign ministers will meet informally this month to discuss and share some ideas on these issues.
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