The last time the service had a major vacancy, its head, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas, told POLITICO it was essential to appoint “a strong person” to help oversee the EEAS to ensure “Europe is a geopolitical power.”
But, according to one senior diplomat, the EEAS “has an issue because everyone sees now the structure doesn’t bring the added value it was expected to bring. And the Commission of course has a huge gravity to attract some part of the staff and competences of the EEAS.”
“This has become existential,” said the diplomat, who was granted anonymity to speak openly about the issue, as were others in this report. “Either we rescue it and work out what we want it to do or it will crash.”
A senior EU official, meanwhile, warned that “there is an alienation between member states and the EEAS,” making it difficult to work with capitals. The service convenes regular meetings of EU foreign affairs ministers, with one such meeting this week brokering a compromise on sanctioning violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
A second senior EU official insisted that the EEAS “has delivered 20 rounds of sanctions, deals with Gulf countries, a new normal with Armenia, a voice on the world stage. It’s delivering, not failing.”
Internal affairs
Others, however, point to problems within the organization itself as a reason for its struggles.