Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

EU commission creates new foreign policy cell

  • Mogherini is moving the office back under the EU commission's wing (Photo: ec.europa.eu)

The EU foreign relations chief is to move her office back to the European Commission to steer a cell of top officials on external policy.

The new commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, set out the plan in a “mission letter” to the foreign relations head, Federica Mogherini, published on Wednesday (10 September).

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

He said: “To liaise more effectively with the other members of the college, following your suggestion, you will have your headquarters in the Berlaymont, and the commission will put a cabinet of an appropriate size at your disposal, about half of which will be commission officials”.

He added that Mogherini will chair a new “Commissioners’ Group on External Action” that will meet “at least once a month”.

He listed seven portfolios that “have a strong external dimension”.

The list includes: neighbourhood and enlargement negotiations; trade; development; humanitarian aid; climate action and energy; transport; and migration.

He also said the commission will continue to run Mogherini’s human resources and will retain control over the vast majority of EU external budgets.

Mogherini’s predecessor, Catherine Ashton, moved her cabinet out of the Berlaymont, the commission HQ, across the road to the EU foreign service’s €12-million-a-year “Axa” building in 2012.

Her spokesman said at the time “it will facilitate contacts between the staff members … reinforce the team spirit and the corporate identity of the EEAS [the European External Action Service]”.

She was also meant to chair a group of commissioners with external-type dossiers. But it met just five times in five years and she did not go to any of the meetings.

EU sources on Wednesday said Mogherini’s u-turn is due to Juncker’s new hierarchy in which seven super-commissioners oversee the work of 20 juniors.

Asked if it amounts to a commission power-grab over the EEAS, which is an independent institution in the EU treaty, one diplomat said: “It’s not being done against anything. There’s no willingness to dismantle anything, on the contrary, she [Mogherini] can build on what Ashton has accomplished”.

Another source added: “It [the move] is purely symbolic”.

Meanwhile, Juncker’s letters to the Mogherini group spelled out his vision on EU foreign relations for the next five years.

He told Austria’s Johannes Hahn, on neighbourhood and enlargement, that: “following the extensive enlargement of the Union in the last decade, the next five years will be a period of consolidation, with no further enlargement taking place during our mandate”.

He also asked him to “pay particular attention to the situation in Ukraine”.

He tasked Sweden’s Cecilia Malmstrom (trade) with concluding negotiations on the EU-US free trade agreement.

He told Cyprus’ Chrystos Stylianides (humanitarian aid) and Greece’s Dmitris Avramopoulos (migration) to help secure EU borders against unwanted migrants. “We need to be able to put European Border Guard Teams into action quickly”, he said referring to border patrols organised by the EU’s immigration agency, Frontex.

Amid the threat of Russian gas cut-offs in winter, he told Spain’s Miguel Arias Canete, on climate and energy, to improve “Europe’s energy security by diversifying sources and routes of energy imports and combining our negotiating power [on gas purchases]”.

“If the price of energy from the east becomes too expensive, either in commercial or political terms, Europe should be able to switch swiftly to other supply channels. We need to be able to reverse energy flows when necessary,” Juncker said.

Analysis

Success of Juncker team depends on 'uber-commissioners'

Incoming EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has come up with a canny distribution of portfolios for this new team but a layer of 'uber-commissioners' is potentially the most important change.

Finnish PM: Russia preparing for 'long conflict with West'

Finland, which shares a border with Russia, has cautioned about the danger of a Russian attack in coming years. Russia is not "invincible" but "self-satisfaction is no longer an option," Finnish prime minister Petteri Orpo said.

EU Commission proposes opening Bosnia accession talks

Eight years on, the EU Commission is to recommend on Tuesday that member states open accession talks with Bosnia and Herzegovina after the country took "impressive steps" to meet the bloc's standards, Ursula von der Leyen said.

Opinion

How the EU can raise its game in the Middle East

Could the EU repair its reputation and credibility by taking action on Gaza? EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell, Spain, Belgium and Ireland, have worked hard to repair the damage, but have faced political headwinds due to internal divisions.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us