The EU’s new foreign minister will have sweeping powers to conduct foreign policy, propose his own budget and name his own staff independently of other EU institutions, according to the latest EU presidency blueprint.
The 10-page Swedish report – obtained by EUobserver – was submitted to EU ambassadors on Thursday (22 October) and represents a synthesis of Stockholm’s consultations with the other 26 EU capitals in recent weeks.
The post of EU foreign minister or “high representative” for foreign affairs and a new EU diplomatic corps or “European External Action Service” (EEAS) are to be created following the entry into life of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty.
The Swedish paper envisages a minister in charge of a unique, “sui generis” institution with its own section in the EU budget alongside the European Commission, the EU parliament and the Council, the Brussels-based secretariat which prepares regular meetings of EU ministers.
The foreign minister is to propose how much money he needs each year, authorise spending, appoint his own staff and take charge of the European Commission’s existing delegations across the world.
The new institution is to manage general foreign relations as well as EU security and defence projects, such as the police missions in Bosnia, Kosovo, Georgia and Afghanistan or any future peacekeeping operations in, for example, Africa. It is also set to take charge of the Situation Centre, the EU member states’ intelligence-sharing hub in Brussels.
The EU diplomatic corps will not be responsible for trade, development or enlargement policy, which are to stay European Commission domains. But it is to have internal cells dealing with developing countries and enlargement candidates which will “play a leading role in the strategic decision-making” on commission programmes such as the European Development Fund.
Andrew Rettman