Kallas defends EU diplomatic arm as debate over its future intensifies

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has come out in support of her own foreign policy department in an internal email seen by Euronews, as discussions among key European capitals over how to reform the bloc’s diplomatic service grow louder.

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The European External Action Service (EEAS) and the role of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy are facing growing scrutiny as EU governments push to make the bloc’s foreign policy more agile in an increasingly volatile global landscape.

Paris has been leading efforts to sketch out what an overhaul of the EU’s diplomatic service could look like, circulating a discussion paper outlining several reform options. Some proposals would curtail the powers of the High Representative, currently held by Kallas, while another would expand her authority in key policy areas.

“The relationship between the EEAS, the Commission and member states has been discussed since the service was established. Given the unprecedented geopolitical challenges we face, it is only natural that these discussions attract renewed attention and take on greater intensity,” Kallas wrote in the internal email seen by Euronews on Thursday.

The French-led paper outlines three possible scenarios.

The first would see the high representative’s role broadly diluted, with key foreign policy competences transferred to the European Commission.

That option would represent a major victory for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has grown increasingly active in stepping into external affairs and international crises, describing her approach as that of the “geopolitical Commission.”

The second scenario would assign a strengthened role for EU diplomatic action to the European Council, meaning member states would take a more operational role in running external relations rather than simply setting the political direction.

Under both scenarios, the role of the High Representative would be significantly watered down. A third option outlined in the paper, however, would move in the opposite direction, strengthening the EU’s chief diplomat role by granting it greater oversight of key portfolios held by European commissioners in areas that, while formally outside foreign policy, have major geopolitical implications, such as trade.

In her private email to staff seen by Euronews, Kallas pushes back on the prospect of a diluted HRVP, stressing that “the roles and responsibilities of the EU institutions are clearly defined in the treaties. That framework remains unchanged.”

“The relationship between the EU institutions has always been debated, and will continue to be debated, as it should. But some people shouldn’t get ahead of themselves: any major institutional reform would require changes to the EU treaties, which are not currently under serious consideration,” an EU official told Euronews.

A second EU official said the idea of overhauling the external action service had been circulating in diplomatic circles for some time, but gained momentum now because the EEAS recently opened its top post of secretary general — triggering what amounts to an institutional interregnum.

Any potential restructuring of the EU diplomatic service would inevitably be linked to ongoing talks over the bloc’s next seven-year budget, though diplomats do not consider it realistic that any significant overhaul could happen before the next legislative term.

The EEAS is also working on its own options paper. A first ministerial-level discussion on the matter is expected at the next informal Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Ireland on 2 September.

Kallas will meet France’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot on Friday in a meeting that was scheduled before the document was made public, coinciding with a two-state solution conference led by France.

Peggy Corlin and Maia de la Baume contributed to the reporting.