As things stand, the member states and the Commission have accepted the EU foreign policy chief Ashton’s blueprint for the European diplomatic corps – the European External Action Service (EEAS). This institutional innovation is intended to be a step towards a coherent European foreign policy, and to provide the EU with a pool of foreign policy expertise. The diplomatic corps’creation has however been surrounded by an institutional turf war. Nonetheless, at this point Ashton only waits for on the agreement of the European Parliament (EP) to move ahead with the EEAS. Ashton hopes to have struck an agreement with Parliament by the end of this week. The Parliament does however not seem to be in a rush.
In the strictest terms, the EP does not have a say on the constellation of the EEAS. Be this as it may, the EP wields budgetary powers over the project, making it necessary to gain the approval of the only elected body politic in the EU before the EEAS can move forward.
The areas of contention are related to a basic theme of the intergovernmental vs. the communitarian. I.e. deciding which areas should be the prerogative of either member state, – or Commission decisions. The parliament believes the EEAS should more communitarian than intergovernmental and will according to a recent statement “continue to strongly defend this position.”
Specifically the parliament argues that deputies for EEAS activities falling under communitarian competencies should be commissioners, and deputies overseeing areas not covered by communitarian competencies should nevertheless be politically accountable. As MEP Elmar Brok stated these deputies “can’t just be European officials.” Furthermore the parliament intends to ensure that national diplomats do not outnumber EU officials in the new diplomatic corps.
Making the EEAS an instrument under Commission control would obviously be a boon for the EP, as they control the purse strings of this body. It would also add democratic accountability to the project. However this option also involves the risk of politicization of EEAS related issues.
As things stand now, the Parliament seems to be in a strong position to put a significant imprint on the future shape of the EEAS. Although Ashton insists that an agreement will be reached in time to launch the EEAS by December, the growing realization among MEP’s of the Parliament’s increased powers would seem to indicat that the decision to move forward ultimately is with the Parliament, not Lady Ashton. As one parliamentary aide bluntly put it, “If we don’t agree with the way they want to do it, we can block the whole goddamned thing,” We will know more by the end of this week.
