POLITICO: EU foreign policy shambles triggers calls for radical overhaul of diplomacy

This is Kaja Kallas, the head of European diplomacy, which is bursting at the seams
Photo: scoop.it

Europe’s mounting foreign policy failures, from struggling to fund Ukraine to its fragmented response to the Iran war, are fueling calls for a root-and-branch overhaul of how the bloc conducts diplomacy.

The EU’s inability to take unified decisions — such as unblocking a €90 billion loan for Kyiv, imposing sanctions on violent West Bank settlers and implementing measures targeting Russia — exposes a systemic paralysis, nine EU diplomats, officials, lawmakers and experts told POLITICO.

At stake is more than internal process: With conflict escalating in the Middle East, Russia’s war in Ukraine grinding on and transatlantic relations under strain, diplomats say the EU risks sidelining itself at a moment when geopolitical decisions are moving faster than its system can handle.

Germany and Sweden are against

Frustration at the deadlock is spilling into the open, with a growing group of countries led by Germany and Sweden pushing to severely limit — or totally scrap — national vetoes that allow a single capital to block action.

“We should abolish the unanimity principle in the EU in foreign and security policy before the end of the current legislative period so as to be better capable of acting internationally and to be truly grown-up,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Saturday, according to the German Funke Group. “All the experience that we have gained over recent weeks with aid for Ukraine and sanctions on Russia indicate this.”

Last month, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that discussions about using qualified majority voting to make foreign policy decisions would “come up again” among leaders.

“There are serious problems in how we take decisions,” Spanish Socialist lawmaker Nacho Sánchez Amor, who sits on the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee told POLITICO. “Every month there’s a new issue that highlights this trend. We have to react.”

Another group — including France, Belgium and smaller member countries, which fear being steamrolled — are digging in to defend the veto right, arguing it is core to their national interest.

Hundred flowers bloom

One point commands near-universal agreement across European capitals: The system is not working.

“Look at the sanctions on the West Bank settlers — it’s a total disaster,” said a senior EU official with knowledge of the issue, referring to widely supported plans to impose sanctions against extremist Israeli settlers, but blocked by Hungary. “We have 26 countries out of 27 in support, even Germany is in favor, but we cannot do anything because of one.”

Like others in this article, the official was granted anonymity to speak freely because the discussions are confidential.

Recent institutional tensions have reinforced the sense of drift. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas have clashed over who should take the lead on foreign policy, while French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot warned the Commission chief to respect the limits of her role during a gathering of EU ambassadors last month.

But diplomats and officials say such turf battles are a symptom, not a cause.

“Everyone understands that the EEAS [European External Action Service] is not working as it should,” said a second EU diplomat from a country that wants to keep the veto. “There is a debate going on now because everyone agrees the system is not optimal … but foreign policy remains a national competence and we should not move to qualified majority voting.”

“It’s the veto, stupid!”

For many, the real problem is unanimity.

With French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz still at odds on the issue, think tanks and political parties are moving to shape the debate.

The center-right European People’s Party has put forward proposals to reshape the EU’s foreign policy architecture, calling in its 2024 manifesto for replacing the EU’s foreign policy chief with an “EU foreign minister, as vice-president of the European Commission,” and for establishing a Security Council that would also include partners such as the U.K., Norway and Iceland.

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