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The probable new home of the EEAS in the EU quarter of Brussels.
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President
On Monday the EU council "politically" agreed with Ashton on the details of the new "European External Action Service", the diplomatic arm of the EU in the making.
Diplomatic service for EU moves step closer - The Irish Times - Tue, Apr 27, 2010
So far I have read that EU delegations are planned in 130 countries. The build up will take years and may lead to a service with up to 8000 people working for it. Not exactly huge, but neither tiny I'd say.
It seems the national ministers could put an end to the nasty infight over procedures, competences etc with this agreement, but the fight is far from over. The European Parliament seems to be pretty anoyed by some of the points of the agreement and it is certainly going to demand changes and possibly overthrow the whole deal yet again as it is also fighting for influence, even if it is only of budgetary and secondary nature as the treaty of Lisbon did not fully integrate foreign policies (even though member states could decide to do so later on without a treaty change by unanimity, which would dramatically expand the role of the EP and introduce majority voting. Such seems rather utopic yet)
So far the compromise foresees the EEAS to represent the EU as a whole and not just a specific EU institution abroad. The EU interacts with states around the world on various levels and the service will be the contact for various actors to the EU.
Most interesting and even though the UK fiercely opposed it, the EU diplomatic service is planned to offer consular services to EU citizens for urgent help if the respective member state does not feature an embassy in the respective country. At least if the affected member state agrees that such a service is offered. This consulary work has to be "cost neutral", whatever that means. I foresee that especially smaller member states, I have read that at least Austria pushed for the possibility of consulary services, will be most interested in that. A very broad diplomatic network is expensive to maintain and by joining forces together in the EU service, a lot of synergy effects could be enjoyed.
It is still in question if and how the service will look like in the near future, but it is certainly a very exciting work in progress. The world may not care if Europe succeeds or fails, but for Europe it certainly could make a big difference, as the Finnish Foreign minister said.
To be continued...
“We all know what to do, we just don’t know how to get re-elected after we’ve done it.”
Jean Caude Juncker
President
The probable new home of the EEAS in the EU quarter of Brussels.
“We all know what to do, we just don’t know how to get re-elected after we’ve done it.”
Jean Caude Juncker
Secretary of Defense
The Netherlands will likely abolish some embassies in the near future. That will certainly help to make this a succes.
President
^^ Are these mere rumors or was that in the news? In an Austrian paper (Kurier) I just recently read a political comment where it was speculated that in maybe 30 years, only a rump of a diplomatic service might be left as far as it comes to Austria. (The comment was not about the EU in first line though, but about the office of federal president of Austria which is loosing increasingly jobs as foreign representation is increasingly done by others, within the EU the government and outside increasingly the EU itself)
I am aware that larger member states are seeinig this whole issue in a rather different light of course, but even there I have heard speculations that one could save remote delegations if one could use synergies on EU level.
“We all know what to do, we just don’t know how to get re-elected after we’ve done it.”
Jean Caude Juncker
Secretary of Defense
We have elections in June. It is in many party programmes. It's sold to the people as an easy way to reduce spending.Originally Posted by Slartibartfas
President
^^ Wow. Thats pretty much the opposite of a hidden agenda
“We all know what to do, we just don’t know how to get re-elected after we’ve done it.”
Jean Caude Juncker
Israel's man in the US Senate
By Clayton Swisher in Americas Middle East on April 25th, 2010
.Share Photo by AFP
Democrat Charles Schumer takes on the Obama administration's Middle east policy, throwing his support behind ISrael in the row over settlements.
From my Doha perch it's easy to avoid the whole "dual loyalty" debate currently raging in Washington. That does not mean that as a reporter I have shied away from raising it where appropriate.
But in case anyone missed it, there has been a growing argument in recent weeks among Washington policy wonks over this very issue, with scathing editorial salvos fired between the formidable Harvard Professor Stephen Walt and the pro-Israel Washington Institute's equally outspoken Robert Satloff.
Their debate centres on whether "dual loyalty" is an appropriate term to use when describing US government officials who put Israel's interests ahead of America's, even when it jeopardizes US national security.
According to Politico's Ben Smith, it seems US Senator Charles Schumer (Democrat-New York) has added more grist to the intellectual food fight.
In effect, Schumer has done to the Obama administration the equivalent of what Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, did to Joe Biden, the US vice-president, on his disastrous visit to Israel in March.
President
^^ What does this have to do with the topic of this thread?
“We all know what to do, we just don’t know how to get re-elected after we’ve done it.”
Jean Caude Juncker
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