Politics Update from John Birchall
The newly installed EU Foreign Policy chief, Baroness Ashton, has been charged with the job of building an EU Diplomatic Corps. So, if an organisation now has its own ‘foreign service’ does it become a country?
Well, for some years the EU has had people abroad representing them, up until now the Commission had people abroad, so did the European Council.
Baroness Ashton is under pressure to succeed as failure will not just be a humiliation for Catherine Ashton but recognition that the long years of arguing have failed to deliver a stronger voice for Europe on the world stage. As such the leaders of the 27 member states may feel betrayed and could begin the process of distancing themselves from a collective foreign stance on the various problems that interest the EU. An example of this would be Palestine, where the EU is the largest single provider of financial assistance to the beleaguered people of that country. Some member states do not agree with this.
It will not be an easy task to actually form a united and functioning diplomatic service. Even as she was fighting off her critics President Sarkozy was hosting a summit with the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. An arms deal was pulled concluded, with the Russians getting helicopter-carriers, and there were discussions on muscular issues like Iran. France, like Germany, inclines towards a special relationship with Moscow. It was an old, familiar story of two powerful nations talking and finding common interest. Europe's nation states are most unlikely to agree to take second place to a common European foreign policy.
But the Baroness is determined to try and already it appears the 130 plus EU missions around the world, more that most EU member states support, will have the responsibility of issuing Schengen visas to the citizens of the country in which they are situated.
It is a start and may be one day the EU will have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and possibly a corps diplomatic that puts forward EU-wide policies.
Teaching Resource
The role of the EU in world affairs-given in Brussels February 2010