'A mess': EU Commission accused of overstepping on foreign policy

Ursula von der Leyen and Borrell hold a press conference in Brussels on Sept. 28, 2022
Photo: AFP

Former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has delivered his sharpest public criticism yet of the European Commission’s growing role in diplomacy and defense, arguing that it is straying beyond its treaty powers and creating confusion over who speaks for Europe on the world stage.

In an interview with POLITICO, Borrell said the increasingly overlapping roles of the Commission and the European External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic arm, which he led from 2019 until late 2024, have created “quite a mess” within the bloc’s foreign policy machinery. “The Commission doesn’t speak representing the European Union; the Commission represents only the Commission,” Borrell said.

The comments amount to the clearest public rebuke yet from a former EU top diplomat of a long-running institutional struggle that has simmered under Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. While current and former officials have privately complained that the Commission has steadily expanded its diplomatic footprint, Borrell is the first former high representative to argue so directly that the EU’s executive branch, the guardian of the treaties, has actually crossed the line laid down in EU law.

A veteran politician whose career included stints as Spain’s foreign minister and president of the European Parliament, Borrell preceded Kaja Kallas as head of the EEAS. Like Kallas, he also clashed with von der Leyen.

Borrell has rarely shied away from strong opinions. He has often been an outspoken critic of Israel, accusing it of genocide and “carrying out the largest ethnic-cleansing operation since the end of the Second World War.”

“If I were today the high representative and I would be sitting at a table where someone is saying, ‘I am going to build the European Defence Union,’ then I would feel a little bit uncomfortable,” he said.

That’s because, in his view, the Commission is also overstepping its role on defense, which, like foreign affairs, is a competence of the member countries.

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