The EU’s diplomatic service under Kaja Kallas is facing an unprecedented period of internal turmoil – exposing existential questions about whether the bloc’s foreign policy machinery is fit for purpose.
Created under the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, the European External Action Service (EEAS) was designed as a compromise between Brussels and national capitals: strong enough to coordinate diplomacy on behalf of EU governments collectively, independently of the European Commission, but weak enough not to threaten national foreign ministries.
Caught between the capitals and the Commission
More than 15 years later, officials across the EU institutions say the compromise is increasingly under strain.
“There should be less intrigue between and within the European Commission and the External Action Service,” said former Estonian foreign minister and current MEP Urmas Paet. Euractiv. “It seems really funny with hot issues around the world.”
The EEAS occupies a difficult place in the EU’s institutional architecture: formally independent, but politically linked to both the Commission and the Member States. The tension is embodied in the “dual” office held by Kallas as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, or HRVP for short.
“It’s always been difficult because it’s a platypus with a duck bill,” said James Moran, a former EU ambassador and now senior research fellow at CEPS, a think tank in Brussels.
Officials within the EEAS complain privately that Berlaymont has increasingly encroached on his territory, while Commission officials dismiss suggestions of a deliberate power grab.
An EU diplomat argued that the growing overlap between geopolitics and economic policy has inevitably shifted power to the Commission.
“If you want to regulate Big Tech … you need the involvement of institutional actors outside the classic foreign policy and security circles,” the diplomat said.
The diplomat described the EEAS as “a bit of an unwanted child” since its conception – caught between member states reluctant to hand over control of foreign policy and a Commission wary of empowering an institution too closely tied to national capitals.
Furthermore, EU countries have been bored with an initiative by Kallas to war-game the EU’s mutual assistance clause 42.7 – fearing it could provoke a strong response from Washington and further endanger NATO.
Whose mandate? Who speaks for the EU?
“Where they have a mandate, they deliver. The problem is that it is a very enigmatic institution with a rather weak mandate,” said Juraj Majcin, a policy analyst at the Center for European Policy, a think tank on EU affairs in Brussels.
Majcin pointed to recent security partnerships with countries such as India and Australia as examples of areas where the EEAS has worked effectively. But he argued that the institution still struggles to define its place within the EU system.
“As long as the treaty is implemented, there will be a European External Action Service,” Moran said, adding that its effectiveness depends on the leadership and willingness of member states to act collectively.
Earlier this week, Kallas put himself forward to take the lead in possible future negotiations with Russia, prompting a debate that highlights the EEAS’ wider political problems.
Officials and analysts have questioned whether the EU’s foreign policy chief has the political backing or institutional mandate for such a role.
Majcin argued that Kallas had put “the cart before the horse” by standing up publicly before securing broad support from national governments, which are discussing other candidates, most likely a former head of state or government in office, to serve as an envoy if there are talks with Putin.
Moran suggested that a middle ground could ultimately emerge, with the EEAS playing a coordinating role while member states and national leaders retain political control over the more sensitive negotiations.
A senior Commission official noted that the discussion itself is a clear marker of the political constraints on any HRVP role.
“The unspoken part is: no Kallas,” the source said.
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