EU foreign policy
A new EU report is critical about the current foreign policy of the European Union. It says it wants to combine certain institutions and have closer cooperation between EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and The Commission. The stalled European Union constitution mentions the creation of a foreign minister with a diplomatic service to back him up. France is in favor of such a setup, however, Belgium and The Netherlands fear they won’t have much control over such an important post.
Brussels is careful to note that the paper is “not intended to reopen a debate on the future of the constitutional treaty or to redefine the respective responsibilities of the different institutional actors.”
But the paper does seek further integration of commission and member states’ foreign policy agendas - which is the main logic behind the reforms proposed in the constitution.
The commission itself plans to strengthen its “Relex” (external relations) group of commissioners under the authority of president Barroso, with member states’ foreign policy chief Solana being invited to work closely together with the Relex team.
Several versions of the draft paper indicate Brussels is struggling with the degree of Mr Solana’s involvement however, with one draft stating he should be “systematically involved” while another uses the more low-key wording “associated.”
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Administrator @ June 7, 2006