EUobserver

The chairman of the Convention on the EU future Valéry Giscard d’Estaing pleaded on Friday for an EU foreign affairs minister to give a face to the European diplomacy. “Such a person would be the speaker of the second global power,” Mr Giscard said after the fourth plenary session of the Convention on the EU future, which took place on Thursday and Friday. However, Mr Giscard failed to unveil whether he would like the EU foreign minister to act within the European Commission or within the Council of Ministers. The chairman of the Convention avoids taking position in the current battle between the community method, favouring the foreign policy to be taken over by the Commission, and the intergovernmental way, based on more powers for the EU states governments.

VALÉRY GISCARD D'ESTAING - chairman of the Convention on EU future: "The difficulty with the present common foreign and security policy is that two persons share the function. This duality cannot continue.” (Photo: EU Commission)

Mr Giscard d’Estaing confirmed on Friday his earlier plea, made at a seminar in New York, for reinforcing the role of the EU high representative for foreign policy to upgrade it to a role of foreign minister. "The difficulty with the present common foreign and security policy is that two persons share the function: the external relations commissioner and the Secretary general of the Council, who is also high representative for foreign policy. This duality cannot continue," he said. Mr Giscard explained that the international system has a typology which requires that a minister of foreign affairs, or a foreign secretary, embodies the functions currently shared by two persons in the European Union.

However, Mr Giscard stopped short of indicating whether, the EU foreign minister should be a member of the Commission or of the Council of ministers. He explained that being the chair of the Convention prevents him from freely expressing his personal views and he would wait for the deliberations of the Convention on this matter to speak. Mr Giscard avoids entering the battle between the two visions on the future of Europe, the community method, supported by the Commission and the European Parliament, and the intergovernmental one, supported by leaders of Spain, France and the UK.

Before taking over his function as chairman of the Convention, in the beginning of the year, Mr Giscard had pointed out, however, that the EU foreign policy chief and the person representing the Euro externally should both be in the Council, and not in the Commission. He also explained before the constitutional affairs committee of the European Parliament in February that he was a supporter of the Council in the beginning, of the Commission afterwards, and he still needs to define his new orientation.

Giscard pleads for EU foreign minister