BRUSSELS ― The head of the EU’s diplomatic service has given a staunch defense of her institution as it fights off suggestions that it be shut down.
In an email seen by POLITICO, Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, wrote to the 5,000-strong staff of the European External Action Service, insisting that it “added value” to the bloc. She was responding to a French government discussion paper that floated radical options for the EEAS that included bringing it completely under the control of the European Commission.
“I would … stress how much added value we have provided to Europe as a team, especially at a moment of full-scale war raging in Europe,” Kallas said in her email.
The French document, which POLITICO has confirmed the contents of, follows long-running criticism from national capitals and EU officials who complain that EU diplomacy is too slow-moving, institutionally dysfunctional and victim of an escalating turf war between the EEAS and the Commission under President Ursula von der Leyen.
The paper was an internal document not approved by the French foreign minister or his aides and does not reflect an official French position, said an EU diplomat. It was first reported by the Financial Times and Reuters. It points to three options for reforming the EEAS, including bringing it entirely under the authority of the Commission, shifting its key functions to the Council of the EU ― which works on behalf of the 27 member governments — and bolstering the role of the Kallas’ job.
In a speech earlier this year, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said that the EU needed a stronger diplomatic service.
‘Unprecedented geopolitical challenges’
The problems at the EEAS were the subject of “daily discussions” among ambassadors and should be taken as a “warning” to Kallas about how she runs the institution, an EU diplomat with knowledge of discussions said after being granted anonymity to discuss confidential matters.
In her email, Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister who has been the EU chief diplomat since 2024, said that she welcomed a debate about reform.
“The relationship between the EEAS, the Commission and Member States has been discussed since the Service was established,” she wrote. “Given the unprecedented geopolitical challenges we face, it is only natural that these discussions attract renewed attention and take on greater intensity.”
She added: “I welcome this debate, because it reflects a shared commitment to one objective: ensuring that our institutions and instruments deliver the greatest possible impact for our citizens.”
But she underscored that the “roles and responsibilities of the EU institutions are clearly defined in the treaties. That framework remains unchanged.” Several EU officials have pointed out that while her High Representative role is indeed mentioned in the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, the “organisation and functioning of the European External Action Service shall be established by a decision of the Council.”
Kallas added that she would be discussing ideas for reform at an informal gathering of foreign ministers after the summer.