Berlin Losing out on EU’s Diplomatic Service
Berlin is worried about its influence in the new European diplomatic service that is being established at the moment as a follow up to the Lisbon Treaty.
The European Union’s diplomatic corps will consist of representatives from both the European institutions and the European capitals. Details on how it will look like are currently hammered out under the lead of the Union’s new High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton.
The German government fears that, facing Ashton’s nationality, the diplomatic service will carry too much of a British imprint. (See Spiegel Online International, 2 March 2010: Berlin Concerned about British Dominance)
Indeed it looks like the German government is lagging behind, losing out on getting one of the top posts in the new diplomatic service. And Berlin might also lose the battle to have German established as the third official language.
Berlin’s policy on the issue doesn’t look particularly smart to me. The government came up too late with initiatives on both organisational aspects and questions of staffing. It has been clear for months that with the entering into force of the Lisbon Treaty in December 2009 there will be a window to leave a mark in the set up of the EU’s new foreign policy institutions.
Take a look at Martin Kremer’s papers on the external action service. He is a German diplomat and currently a fellow at Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Berlin.