A European source confirmed to Agence Europe on Monday 26 May that a reduction in the number of staff at certain EU diplomatic delegations was under consideration, with the aim of redeploying these human resources to other regions of the world deemed to be more strategic.
The proposed reduction would affect almost 100 local staff and would mean that a dozen or so EU foreign delegations would be operating with an extremely small staff, effectively amounting to a virtual closure, as reported by Politico on Tuesday 20 May.
“No delegation will be closed”, a spokesman for the European Commission was keen to stress on Monday.
The latter is looking into reforming its network of EU delegations, with the main aim of setting up regional centres specialising in investment management, as Agence Europe detailed in January (see EUROPE 13574/20, 13558/4).
“The network of 145 EU delegations is a major EU’s success story. (...) Proposals to modernise the network will allow to better reflect the EU’s interest and priorities. We will now start consultations with staff and inform other institutions and EU stakeholders”, the spokesman added. (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)