EU Foreign Policy – Tackling Kissinger’s Conundrum
By Giles Keane, Director of Corporate Communications
Winston Churchill once said that “Soviet Union foreign policy is a puzzle inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma, and the key is Russian nationalism”. Just a few months after her appointment as the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Margaret Ashton, (Baroness Ashton of Upholland – to give her full title) could say similar things about the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy. However, for her the key is EU decision making.
Ashton’s initial appointment to High Representative was marked by accusations that she was a compromise candidate and a political light-weight. Indeed, the Baroness herself was said to be as surprised as anyone on hearing of her appointment.
Three jobs for the price of one
After this inauspicious beginning, her first few months in office have yielded little in terms of concrete action. However, any criticism of Ashton’s work to date has to take account of the sheer scale of the task she has been given. On the one hand it involves taking over the responsibilities of what were previously two separate foreign policy posts and dealing with the day to day challenges they bring. At the same time she has to oversee one of the largest and most politically charged organizational management projects ever undertaken at EU level.
Few envy Ashton the responsibility of creating a new EU diplomatic corps, or European External Action Service. Not only does Ashton have to navigate her way through the infighting among the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council, but she also has to maintain relations with 27 individual Foreign Ministries. Unsurprisingly, not all of these parties have a common vision of how exactly the new service should be set up.
Ashton does not have much institutional guidance on the nature of her mandate either. The Lisbon Treaty that created her position failed to offer much detail as to how exactly the EU diplomatic corps should be organised—an omission that some diplomats now regret.
Europe as a global actor
When not dealing with human resource issues, Ashton is also responsible for representing the EU on the world stage in her capacity as both the High Representative on Foreign Affairs and the Vice-President of the European Commission. So far she has been accused of struggling to handle the role of leading lady.
Over the past 100 days, Ashton has traveled to the Balkans, the Middle East and Haiti. However, her statements and actions have often been overshadowed by media frenzies over softer topics e.g. whether she should have access to an official aeroplane for her travels. After the dust of this particular debate settled, Ashton was then criticized for arriving too late to post-earthquake Haiti and for undermining the EU’s international visibility in this important humanitarian crisis.
Despite all these challenges and distractions, when she does manage to speak above the critical chatter that surrounds her, Ashton tends to be well-received. This was evident in her trip to the Balkans, where she found a warm welcome from an often difficult-to-please audience. Similarly, her presentation of a renewed peace plan in the Middle East went as smoothly as could be realistically hoped in the circumstances.
Whether Ashton can move beyond the bureaucratic scraps that have defined her first 100 days is an open question. In early May there was widespread speculation in the British press that she might resign in the face of widespread international criticism for not making her mark on the world stage. While these rumours were categorically denied by the Commission, what issues Ashton wants to prioritize and which parts of the world will be highest on the EU’s future agenda remain largely unclear.
Many see the next few months as a ‘make or break’ period for Ashton. But no matter how her personal story unfolds, it is likely that the position she holds will endure. This will undoubtedly have an impact on how the European institutions engage with the outside world. While the detail of the European External Action Service has yet to be agreed, what is clear is that the EU has the ambition and tools to become more assertive in international affairs. Eventually, it may confidently be able to answer Henry Kissinger’s famous question of “who do I call if I want to call Europe?”