Foreign Policy
Apart from the Foreign Affairs Commissioner, the EU also has a 'Special Envoy' and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers as well as the Chair of the Commission all do diplomatic missions. Alongside that, the individual member state foreign ministers as well as heads of government all do diplomacy as well.
A big mess, to tell the truth.
Need to simplify:
- Only one foreign policy representative, which must be the Commissioner or appointed person by the Council, no-one else, at all.
- When necessary, this one can include others in the delegation, if the situation calls for it. Leading the delegation must exclusively be up to the FP Commissioner.
EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell is most of the time pretty quiet but he does occasionally stand up for some profiling work, either for the Commission or for himself and his staff. However, since he is quite laid back and thus not very fast, oftentimes some of the other Commission and Council colleagues get going fast, before Borell. Often even before and without conferring with the same set of colleagues.
When other nations and their journalists are waiting for a comment on current proceedings from the EU, The first one coming up is usually the Chairman for the European Council (which means the assembly of EU member states heads of government) by the name of Charles Michel. He shoots from the hip, fast. Then there are some fast reactions from commentators and even governments, and most of the time they are surprised, perplexed or even disagreeing in anger. After this first round, the Chairwoman of the Commission and/or the Commissioner actually reaponsible for foreign policy steps in and set things right. At least until another EU official or politician wants to step in with any number of corrections.
Very recent example when Charles Michel found it appropriate to send condolences on behalf of the EU to the Iranians, for the loss of president Raisi bue to a helicopter crash. It was literally a few hours before the announcement by the Iranian government. And Michel seemed to forget that EU and very visible groups of exiled Iranians are currently living in Europe, among other things driven out from Iran by the policies of said Raisi. And EU is inconflict with Iran over many matters, just as the allies like USA are. After du thinking, Michel might have chosen er more weighed wording of the message.
There are many more examples af these gaffes or maybe sometimes even conscious circumvention of colleagues and competitions within the EU system. Sometimes getting first to the press or first to the table matters a lot to these people.
This approach in itself cales for a reconsideration of how EU organizes its foreign policy. One foreign minister in charge, one number to all, one common and deliberate message that we all can rely on.