In this article we see the significant role that the European External Action Service (EEAS) is supposed to play in the future and how this group (the same group who is scheduled to maintain border control in contested areas around Europe and the Middle East) is gaining power and clout within the EU.
Member states responsible for EU 'single voice" abroad, top official says
The EU's ability to speak with one voice on foreign policy is ultimately dependent on member states, with the European External Action Service (EEAS) to act as a "facilitator" a senior official has said.
The comments by EEAS chief operating officer David O'Sullivan come amid intense debate over the organisation's job description, with top official Catherine Ashton recently subject to criticism.
"At the end of the day, it's the member states that decide whether they want to speak with one voice, and there are moments when there are divergences," O'Sullivan told EUobserver in an interview last week (10 May).
"The high representative has difficulty expressing a common European view if one doesn't exist."
Now we get to the interesting part:
Others would like to see a more authoritative Ashton however, one that knocked heads together and came up with proposals until a common EU line was agreed.
In an email to colleagues on Tuesday, German Green MEP Franziska Brantner said: "Cathy Ashton is failing to grasp what her job is."
"Instead of proactively forging common positions, she passively waits until EU governments have outlined their positions, the lowest common denominator of which she then presents as her proposal."
Days earlier, Belgian foreign minister Steven Vanackere spoke of his "impatience".
The impatience stems from lacking a strong leader, a common complaint about the current leader, Catherine Ashton.
"We have always wanted the external action service to be the central axis around which member states can organize. But in the absence of a central axis which makes analysis and draws conclusions quickly, it's the Germans today, and tomorrow the French or the English who take part of this role," he told Le Soir, a Belgian daily.
The foreign minister also called into the question the service's long-term policy planning, describing documents he read during Belgium's recent EU presidency as "disappointing".
Much of the service's attentions have been necessarily directed towards other matters, with the organisational structure needing to be set up, in order to effectively react to the almost daily crises on the world stage, said O'Sullivan.
He predicts this part of the service's activity will really start next spring when the internal structure of the EEAS is fully established.
So what do we see here?
In summary we can list the following germane points:
1. There is ambiguity and a lack of leadership in the EU Foreign Policy area
2. The EU needs a single voice which expresses a "common European view"
3. The EEAS should serve as the "central axis" which makes foreign policy analysis and draws conclusions "quickly"
4. Such changes may be coming by next spring when the EEAS structure is in place
Such a leader will most definitely emerge and this figure will eliminate the ambiguity which now plagues the EU and will speak for the EU with a "single voice". Just read Revelation 13 for a full description.
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