Taking stock: 50 years of European diplomacy

The Hague Journal of Diplomacy

Volumn 4, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 235-259

  Spence, David ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Common foreign and security policy; Diplomacy; Diplomatic careers; Epistemic community; Euro diplomats; Europe; Europe's foreign policy framework; European external action service; Lisbon treaty; National diplomatic systems; National diplomats; Representation

Indexed keywords

EID: 72449204707     PISSN: 18711901     EISSN: 1871191X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/187119109X440924     Document Type: Article

References (65)

1. J. Bátora, 'Does the EU Transform the Institution of Diplomacy?', Journal of European Public Policy,vol. 12, no.1, 2005 44-66.
2. B. Hocking and D. Spence, Foreign Ministries in the European Union: Integrating Diplomats (Basing-stoke: Palgrave, 2005) 3 and 32-33.
3. D. Newson, 'The New Diplomatic Agenda: Are Governments Ready?', International Affairs, vol.65,no. 1, 1999;
4. and A.K. Henrikson, 'Diplomacy's Possible Futures', The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, vol.1, no.1, 2006 3-27.
5. Hocking and Spence, Foreign Ministries in the European Union.
6. Anand Menon, 'EU is a Soft Power, even with Lisbon', European Voice, 25 September 2008.
7. G. Jackson, Concorde Diplomacy: The Ambassador's Role in the World Today (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1981).
8. The European Council agreed a report from High Representative for CFSP Javier Solana in December2008 that stated, inter alia: 'For military missions, we must continue to strengthen our efforts on capabilities, as well as mutual collaboration and burden-sharing arrangements. Experience has shown the needto do more, particularly over key capabilities such as strategic airlift, helicopters, space assets, and maritime surveillance. These efforts must be supported by a competitive and robust defence industry acrossEurope, with greater investment in research and development'. See Report on the Implementation of the European Security Strategy: Providing Security in a Changing World, Council of Ministers 17104/08,10 December 2008.
9. The EU's military profile extends abroad, for example, to EURORECAMP, a tool to help the African Union (AU) validate the African Standby Force (ASF) by 2010. This falls within the frame work of the European Union's action plan to strengthen African capabilities. See "www.armaniafrica.org.
10. For a discussion of military underpinnings of EU power, see C.J. Bickerton, 'Realpolitik for an EthicalAge? Exploring the Functionality of EU Foreign Policy', CFSP Forum, vol.7, no.1, January 2009.
11. For details of headline goals and capability conferences, see J. Howarth, Security and Defence Policy in the European Union (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007).
12. EDA Conference entitled 'Helicopters -Key to Mobility', address by Javier Solana, EU High Representative for CFSP and Head of the European Defence Agency, Brussels, 10 March 2009.
13. Sir Peter Marshall, quoted in UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, 'Foreign Policy Aspects of the Lisbon Treaty', HC 120-1, 2008, p. 42.
14. The figures above are taken from a speech by Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner to the Zigarrenclub in Vienna, 20 October 2008, entitled 'Ein globales Europa: Aktuelle Herausforderungen der EU-Aussenpolitik'.
15. From Jean Monnet's speech of 9 November 1954, quoted in J.M. Barroso, 'Speech Celebrating 50 Years of the European Commission', 7 November 2008, Rapid Database 08/593.
16. Quoted in G. Soros, The Age of Fallibility (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006), p. xi.
17. D. Spence, 'The Coordination of European Policy by Member States', in M. Westlake and D. Galloway (eds.), The Council of the European Union (London: John Harper, 2004) 297-324.
18. D. Spence, 'The Evolving Role of Foreign Ministries in the Conduct of European Affairs', in B. Hocking and D. Spence, (eds.), Foreign Ministries in the European Union: Integrating Diplomats (Basingstoke:Palgrave, 2005).
19. A particularly sophisticated re-think of foreign ministry roles is outlined in the 'Paschke Report', amanagement review of the Auswärtiges Amt [German Foreign Office]. See Karl T. Paschke, Report on theSpecial Inspection of Fourteen German Embassies in the Countries of the European Union (Berlin: Federal Foreign Office, September 2000).
20. The original German version of the report was published in Enrico Brandt and Christian Buck (eds.), Auswärtiges Amt: Diplomatie als Beruf (Opladen: Verlag Leske & Budrich, 2002).
21. S. Haseler, Super-State: The New Europe and its Challenge to America (London: IB Tauris, 2004)
22. J. McCormick, The European Superpower (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2007).
23. M. Leonard, Why Europe will Run the Twenty-First Century (London: Fourth Estate, 2005).
24. The Treaty on European Union mentions in various places the obligation to coordinate policy. For example, Article J.2 obliges member states to ensure their action in international organizations. Article J.6 covers cooperation between diplomatic and consular missions. Article C requires consistency in external relations, security, and economic and development policies. Meanwhile, Article 228a of the Treaty of Rome links economic sanctions to a prior CFSP decision.
25. Ana Mar Fernández, 'Consular Affairs in the EU: Visa Policy as a Catalyst for Integration', The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, vol.3, no.1, 2008.
26. See 'Debate on an EU Fit for Purpose in a Post-2009 Global Age', 9 March 2009, available online at"www.fco.gov.uk/en/newsroom.
27. M.E. Smith details some of the analytical complexity in 'Researching European Foreign Policy: Some Fundamentals', Politics, vol.28, no.3, 2008 177-187.
28. I differ here from Cross's assumption that diplomats in European states per se are an epistemic community, holding instead that European diplomacy encompasses two specific epistemic communities within the overall European diplomatic community. See M.K.D. Cross, The European Diplomatic Corps: Diplomats and International Cooperation from Westphalia to Maastricht (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2007).
29. Bátora, 'Does the EU Transform the Institution of Diplomacy?'.
30. European Council, 12 December 2008, 'Presidency Conclusions'.
31. There is potential confusion here. Of course, an EU member state's diplomat formally remains amember state's diplomat, even if he or she is a 'Euro-diplomat' for the purposes of this analysis.
32. Hazel Blears, British Home Office Minister, House of Lords, 'EU Counter-Terrorism Activities', Minutes of Evidence, Select Committee on the EU, Wednesday 8 December 2004, Questions 361-399.
33. S. Nuttall, European Political Cooperation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992).
34. For a national diplomat's perspective, see Sir Roger Tomkys, former UK ambassador, who recounts the vagaries of integrating diplomats, integrating the Commission and cross-national networks in 'European Political Cooperation and the Middle East: A Personal Perspective', International Affairs, vol.63, no.3, 1987, p. 434.
35. I. Stelzer, 'Brown has Outsourced British Foreign Policy', The Spectator, 21 November 2007.
36. I am grateful to several discussions with Jozef Bátora in reaching this conclusion.
37. P. Haas, 'Introduction: Epistemic Communities and International Policy Coordination', International Organization, vol.46, no.1, 1992 1-35.
38. Haas, 'Introduction'. For a guide to the most helpful writing on the proposed EEAS, see Brian Crowe, The European External Action Service: Roadmap for Success, a Chatham House Report (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2008);
39. Brian Crowe, 'Towards a European Foreign Policy', The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, vol.1, no.1, 2006 107-114;
40. and Laura Rayner, The EU Foreign Ministry and Union Embassies (London: The Foreign Policy Centre, 2005).
41. Javier Solana, in answer to question 620, House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Third Report of Session 2007-2008, 'Foreign Policy Aspects of the Lisbon Treaty Evidence'.
42. E. Steen, 'Commission Delegations Come of Age: Officials Await a Constitution, Allowing Them tobe Reborn as a Proper Diplomatic Service', European Voice, 15-21 March 2007.
43. C. Falkowski, Director for the External Service, DG RELEX, in 'Taking Europe to the World -50 Years of the European Commission's External Service', Information Brochure, p. 8.
44. See J. Monar, 'The Case for a European Diplomatic Academy', European Foreign Affairs Review, vol. 5, no.3, which argues that a 'European Diplomatic Academy could become the centre piece of anemerging common EU "external service culture"'. Through permanent identification of 'best practices' intraining and the use of innovative elements, its work could serve as a triggering factor for the development of common external service practices and a 'common culture' for EU and member state officials in external services. This would facilitate the 'build-up of common diplomatic representations and add to the
45. coherence of the Union's external representation and image'. For a formal view, see 'Staff Training for the External Service', Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament, 14 November 2003, C(2003) 4163 Final.
46. UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, Third Report of Session 2007-2008, 'Foreign Policy Aspects of the Lisbon Treaty Evidence', answer to question 629.
47. A. Forster and W. Wallace, 'Common Foreign and Security Policy', in H. Wallace and W. Wallace(eds.), Policy-Making in the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996) 411-435 atp. 420.
48. A. Zimmer, 'Gemeinsame Unterbringung von Botschaften und Gesandtschaftsrecht', Europarecht,vol. 42, no.6, 2007, p. 815.
49. In November 2008, Development Commissioner Louis Michel opened a joint EU embassy in Dili,East Timor. This 'maison de l'Europe' brings together the Commission delegation and representatives of several EU member states in a renovated colonial building close to government headquarters. As Michelput it at the inauguration ceremony in the presence of East Timor's President José Ramos-Horta, it is 'toutà fait conforme à l'esprit de Robert Schumann'. In an interview with Agence France Presse, Michel arguedthat the project was a precursor: 'Putting their services with those of the Commission, states lose none of their sovereignty, but coordination is stronger, and thus more efficient; and this allows significant savings. It ought to be done more frequently'. Most EU member states had originally decided not to open an independent embassy in East Timor when it gained independence from Indonesia in May 2002, three years after a UN-supervised referendum, preferring to manage business from embassies in Jakarta, with counsellors based in a Dili outpost. But the EU is a major supporter of East Timor, with the European Commission providing 65 million euros in humanitarian aid and 168 million euros in development assistance between 2002 and 2007, to which must be added the aid programmes of individual EU member states. The constraints and incentives for merged representation are thus clear.
50. Hansard for the UK Parliament, 16 April 2007, col. 34.
51. European Parliament, Opinion of Parliament on the Convening of the IGC, PE 197.390, 1996.
52. See also Galeote Quecedo and Becerril Atienza, Towards a Common European Diplomacy? Analysis of the European Parliament Resolution on Establishing a Common Diplomacy (Madrid: Instituto de Estudios Europeas, University of San Pablo-CEU, 2001).
53. See inter alia K. Hughes, Shaping Europe's Legacy: The EU's Very Discreet Debate on Who will Make Foreign Policy (Brussels: Friends of Europe, 2008);
54. D. Spence, 'The Commission's External Service', in D. Spence (ed.), The European Commission (London: John Harper, 2006);
55. Crowe, The European External Action Service
56. Crowe, 'Towards a European Foreign Policy'.
57. Former Senior CFSP official Sir Brian Crowe has analysed the complexity of the issues in Crowe, 'Towards a European Foreign Policy';
58. Crowe, The European External Action Service.
59. and Brian Crowe, The New European Union Foreign Minister (EUFM) (London: European Policy Centre, 2006).
60. Jackson, Concorde Diplomacy, p. 4.
61. Bátora, 'Does the EU Transform the Institution of Diplomacy?'.
62. K.-E. Jorgensen, Po Co: The Diplomatic Republic of Europe (unpublished and undated manuscript).
63. Cited in P. Reynolds, 'A Leaner Diplomatic Service', BBC News, 15 December 2004, available online at "http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk-politics/ 4098109.stm.
64. Michael Emerson, 'What Values for Europe? The Ten Commandments'. CEPS Policy Brief, no.65(Brussels: Centre for European Policy Studies, 2005).
65. Joseph Nye, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs, 2004), p. 5.