MEPs win concessions on EEAS
Agreement struck on financial regulation and no deal yet on revisions to staff regulation.
The EU’s member states have granted the European Parliament the right to scrutinise the Union’s foreign-policy spending as part of a compromise intended to pave the way for the launch of the European External Action Service (EEAS) on 1 December.
The concession was made late on Monday (11 October) in negotiations between leading MEPs and Belgium, the current holder of the rotating presidency of the Council of Ministers, on changes to financial regulations entailed by the creation of the diplomatic corps.
It now appears all but certain that MEPs will adopt a revised financial regulation at their plenary session in Strasbourg next week.
By contrast, revisions to a second regulation – on staffing – remain stuck. The Parliament is divided between proponents and opponents of recruitment quotas for officials from the EU’s new member states. Failure to reach an agreement ahead of next week’s plenary could delay the launch of the EEAS, which requires both pieces of legislation.
In the negotiations on the financial regulation, diplomats accepted most of the MEPs’ demands. They agreed that the EEAS should use the European Commission’s internal auditor, provide a breakdown of proposed administrative and operational spending ahead of annual budget consultations, and list all administrative expenditure in the EU’s delegations abroad.
“We are happy with the compromise,” said an aide to Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief. “We have a vote [in plenary] next week and we’re not going to anger MEPs now.”
But a national diplomat said that the deal would “increase the Parliament’s capacity to interfere on details of administrative matters” and whet its appetite for running the Union’s foreign policy.
“Every time we think we’ve agreed something the MEPs have come back on the agreement and posed additional demands,” he said. “There’s a high degree of fatigue [among the member states] with the institutional squabbling with the Parliament.”
Fact File
Ashton calls for swift decision on headquarters
Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, has asked the EU’s member states to decide swiftly on the future headquarters of the European External Action Service (EEAS).
In a confidential presentation to member states’ ambassadors in Brussels yesterday (13 October), Ashton made it clear that her preferred option is the Capital building on RondPoint Schuman, which would cost €10 million to rent each year.
“There will not be a proper diplomatic service until we have all its bits united in a single building,” an aide to Ashton said. The aide said that the officials of the European Commission and the Council of Ministers that are to be transferred to the EEAS are currently dispersed across eight different buildings at a projected annual cost of €25 million.
Three options
Ashton outlined three options: the Council’s Lex building; the Commission’s Charlemagne building; and the Capital building, a new development owned by AXA, a private company.
The Charlemagne is a “non-runner”, according to a source, as it is the most expensive to rent. Moreover, displacing its current main tenant, the Commission’s department for trade, would entail additional costs.
The Lex building is difficult because it would need to be fitted to meet security standards, which would take up to two years. The Capital building, by contrast, meets those standards.
Toby Vogel
Once the financial and staff regulations are approved, the principal battleground will become the budget for the service, including spending at the management level.
Management costs
Ingeborg Grässle, a German centre-right MEP who led the Parliamentary team negotiating the financial regulation, wants the projected costs for management to be cut by 10%.
An official rebuffed the accusation that the service would be unduly top-heavy. The official said that diplomacy required a higher number of senior officials than running a typical Commission department.
“Very senior-level representation in international forums is a necessary price to pay for higher visibility and better co-ordination of the EU’s external representation,” the official said.
Another outstanding issue is a demand by MEPs that the Instrument for Stability, from which security missions abroad are financed, be transferred to the new service. The Instrument is currently controlled by the member states but administered by the Commission. The Parliament’s budgets and budgetary oversight committees have frozen funds for new posts in the EEAS over the issue.
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