The Conference of Presidents on the External Action Service

In this report significant progress has been achieved during the last quadrilogue between the Parliament, Council, Commission, and the High Representative/Vice President, that took place on 8 June. These discussions resulted in an agreement on the Declaration by the High Representative on Political Accountability, which reinforces the scrutiny of the Parliament over the CFSP and EU external action.  Also, an agreement was reached on a Statement by the High Representative on the Basic Organisation of the EEAS Central Administration, which in particular gives assurances on two issues important to the Parliament: on priority arrangements for the promotion of human rights and on integrated crises management and peace-building structure, involving current Council and Commission services.

 

However, there is so far no agreement on the nature of the EEAS. The Parliament believes that the Service should be more communitarian than inter-governmental in character, and this is why the Parliament insists that it is attached to the Commission. The Parliament believes that in these times of increasing intergovernmentalism it is of the utmost importance to ensure that community policies are not intergovernamentalised, ensuring the communitarian nature of the EEAS is essential. On this front, the discussions in the quadrilogue have not yet been fully fruitful. The Parliament will continue to strongly defend this position.

 

In this context, we remain concerned about the coherence of development policy. We believe that the relevant Commissioner should be the responsible person for the formulation of development policy and for programming of financial assistance in this area.  This, however, must be done in conjunction with HRVP´s responsibility for overall political coordination of the EU´s external action.

 

Finally the Parliament is concerned that the staffing policy of the EEAS as provided for by the proposal by the HRVP will not enable a community spirit to develop within the Service.  Two conditions are required.  Firstly, permanent community officials must form a majority of the EEAS, and secondly, national diplomats engaged within the Service must be able to continue their career in the EEAS if they so wish with the agreement of the HRVP. It is positive that the Staff Regulation was acknowledged as the basis for the staff issues and Article 6 of the Council Decision must respect this primacy. The Parliament insists in transforming this principle into concrete language.

 

In short, the Parliament still has serious concerns.  The Conference of Presidents believes that these issues can be resolved and calls on the HRVP, the Presidency and the Commission to engage constructively in finding a consensual solution. The establishment of the EEAS cannot wait, but these principles stated above are essential for the success of the Service. The Parliament will not compromise on these.

 

The Parliament also regrets that the last legislative draft needed for the establishment of the EEAS – the Staff Regulation - has been presented by the Commission only this week. This delay has been the reason for which any legislative work and any formal inter-institutional negotiations can start only now.