EU leaders clash over who should control foreign policy

The European Union wants a foreign policy that acts more quickly and forcefully. The immediate question is who gets to decide.

Germany and France have proposed a major overhaul of the European External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic arm. Their plan would turn the relatively independent service, created in 2010, into a regular directorate-general under the Commission. It could also give the service broad responsibility for defense, relations with neighboring countries, aid and possibly trade.

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If we have issues where someone above me is the one who decides, it does not work. If we move everything to the Commission, especially the smaller member states will lose control of foreign policy.

The change would formally strengthen the role of EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. At the same time, it would bring her closer under Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has made clear that she wants to direct her Commission with the help of her powerful chief of staff, Björn Seibert.

Kallas has signaled that she would not accept such an arrangement unless she retained the final say. “If we have issues where someone above me is the one who decides, it does not work. If we move everything to the Commission, especially the smaller member states will lose control of foreign policy,” she said after a foreign ministers’ meeting in Ireland.

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We are very like-minded. She also puts Ukraine’s cause at the top of the agenda. I consider that entirely existential.

The dispute reflects a long-running problem for the EU’s foreign policy chief. Member states remain protective of their national authority, while political backgrounds and cultural differences have shaped disagreements over how the service is run. Sweden is supporting Kallas. “We are very like-minded. She also puts Ukraine’s cause at the top of the agenda. I consider that entirely existential,” Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said.

Malmer Stenergard is also backing a proposal from 11 countries, including Sweden, to replace unanimity with qualified-majority voting for more foreign-policy decisions. “The focus now should be on getting things done. Stop the internal bickering, which unfortunately we see too much of, and make sure the EU member states can deliver instead of allowing individual countries to block important decisions all the time,” she said.

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The focus now should be on getting things done. Stop the internal bickering, which unfortunately we see too much of, and make sure the EU member states can deliver instead of allowing individual countries to block important decisions all the time.