Brussels, 09/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - EU foreign ministers, meeting in informal Council in Copenhagen on Friday 9 March, discussed how the European External Action Service (EEAS) was working, while the French minister has written to High Representative Catherine Ashton calling on her to improve the EEAS.
Swedish minister Carl Bildt, like Polish Secretary of State Mikolij Dowgielewicz, pointed out that the EEAS was “only a baby. It is still growing”. Dowgielewicz said: “There are always ways to improve. The EEAS still has to grow, to become bigger and stronger”. “Maybe there should be better integration with the rest of the Commission”, Bildt suggested. “There has to be more synergy between the EEAS and member states diplomatic services”, added his Dutch counterpart Uri Rosenthal. Finnish minister Erkki Tuomioja called member states into question. “Member states are less willing to work together than before”, he said. He stressed it was important that member states should be able to deliver one single message, not conflicting messages and interests. “The high representative is doing her best in these circumstances. She is totally dependent on member states' willingness to commit”, he added.
Letter from Juppé, who missed the Council
On the eve of the Council, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé wrote to the high representative calling on her to “improve the workings of the European External Action Service and the way they mix with diplomatic efforts of union members”. He urged the EEAS to cooperate more with member states, improve its capacity to bring forward ideas, and reinforce its expertise on global and multilateral issues.
Stressing her “strong relationship” with Juppé, Ashton said that she had always asked foreign ministers to work together to send her their comments and points of view on the various different issues. Ashton's spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said that the letter was a “positive contribution to (Friday's) debate”, which Juppé was unable to attend as she had to be in Morocco and would only join his colleagues on Friday evening. “This is in no way a criticism of anyone or anything”, said the French minister's spokesman, Bernard Valero.
Ashton refused to comment on the Financial Times article which claimed that the Commission and the United Kingdom were considering replacing Ashton with a former French foreign minister and for the UK to have the financial affairs commissioner's post, in exchange for London's support for the new fiscal compact. The article, Ashton's spokesman said, had “no basis at all”. (CG/transl.rt)