Ministers struggle to agree details on EU foreign service

By Ann Cahill, Europe Correspondent, in Cordoba

Saturday, March 06, 2010

EU foreign ministers struggled to agree the details of a common foreign service at a meeting in Spain last night.

Battle lines were drawn with the European Commission, which is reluctant to give up many of its powers, including some of its budget, to the new External Action Service.

While the Lisbon Treaty agreed to a new, much more powerful foreign service, the details are still being worked out between the institutions and the foreign representative, Catherine Ashton.

Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin, after several hours discussions at the informal meeting in Cordoba, said he believed it was possible to overcome divisions.

"We are the largest donors in the world, the biggest single market and we lead the world in human rights and other areas. We need the external action service if we are to have our voice heard in the world."

France and Germany have argued for a strong service to control a range of EU bodies and be responsible for defence, security, part of the development budget and have a say in trade talks.

Britain was reluctant, seeing it as competition to its own huge foreign service.

However, as the commission and its president, Jose Manuel Barroso, made it clear he intended to keep control of as much as possible of the fledgling service, Britain changed its position.

A letter signed by the British and Swedish foreign ministers, David Miliband and Carl Bildt, argued for an extensive service under the control of Ashton.

Miliband denied there was a power struggle between the member states and the commission. "What Carl Bildt and I have set out in our letter is how to draw on the best of the existing institutions to make the institution work well and what we want to avoid at all costs is any kind of vacuum."

While many of the disagreements are about details such as who decides on appointments to embassies, these will ultimately decide who influences the service.

The discussions on forming the service and agreeing common positions continues today.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Saturday, March 06, 2010