European Union leaders will enter into a dispute over the future of Kaia Kallas and the bloc's diplomatic service she heads at a summit before the end of the year. This is clear from a document cited by “Euroactive“, reports News.bg.
The controversial institutional debate will come to the forefront of the political agenda after Germany and France insisted on a reform of the European External Action Service, led by Kallas, and for its discussion by the end of 2026.
In the document, Paris and Berlin present their vision for largely integrating the European External Action Service (EEAS), which has around 5,000 employees, 1/3 of whom are seconded national diplomats, into the structure of the European Commission.
The confidential diplomatic proposal states that this is necessary to ensure “stronger, faster and more coordinated“ EU foreign policy.
The joint initiative, dating back to August and circulated ahead of last week's meeting of foreign ministers, was initially drafted by Germany and subsequently updated after receiving suggestions from France.
Germany had formulated its own ideas in an earlier, separate document.
A comparison of the two documents reveals some substantial nuances between the German and French positions, suggesting that the two capitals disagree on the scale of the role that Kallas should play.
The Franco-German document explicitly calls for Kallas to become “executive vice-president“ of the European Commission - something that is absent from the German document and which Berlin questions because of its aim to strengthen the role of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The Franco-German document also states: “The High Representative must finally be given the powers to carry out the responsibilities assigned to him by the Treaties“.
Furthermore, the joint document foresees that part of the internal core of the European Commission - the foreign policy units in its Secretariat-General - will be subject to the same quota for national composition that already applies to the EEAS, according to which at least 1/3 of the staff must come from national diplomatic services.
This would significantly increase the possibilities of national governments to influence the formulation of EU foreign policy and would open up the Commission's internal machinery to national diplomats - a request made by France.
The discussion itself, the most significant institutional debate in the EU since the Lisbon Treaty, is linked to the negotiations on the 2028-2034 budget, which are expected to culminate in a long-running summit in December.
Kaia Kallas has tried to regain control of the reform process by sharply criticizing the Franco-German plan and saying it lacks support among EU countries. Last week, she said that any strengthening of her role within the Commission would ultimately be ineffective, since it is the Commission president who “really makes the decisions” on foreign policy.