In a written reply on Thursday 26 February to questions from Martin Sonneborn (non-attached, German), the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, explained that, from September 2026, the network of EU delegations will operate with three types of delegation.
Ten delegations will become “diplomatic presence delegations” with a reduced staffing and a mandate focused on core diplomatic functions. “This allows the EU to maintain key political and diplomatic engagement with host countries. Other areas of cooperation will continue to be covered, either by a neighbouring delegation or by headquarters”, she added. The 10 delegations concerned are Belarus, Eritrea, Eswatini, Haiti, Kuwait, Lesotho, Papua New Guinea, South Sudan, Timor Leste and Trinidad and Tobago.
Conversely, six delegations will be reinforced, as they have additional regional expertise to support neighbouring delegations “in the management of the Global Gateway, migration, stability and strategic communication”. These are reportedly South Africa, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Fiji and Barbados.
The other delegations – the vast majority – will be standard, i.e. with the capacity to carry out all core functions and access to expertise and support from reinforced delegations or headquarters.
In May 2025, the Commissioners’ Project Group on External Relations agreed on a series of concrete proposals for a modernised network of delegations.
See the High Representative’s answer: https://aeur.eu/f/kyh; and Martin Sonneborn’s question: https://aeur.eu/f/kyi (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)