European Union leaders are to give the green light to the creation of a European diplomatic service to increase the union’s voice on the world stage.
Under proposals finalised by Ireland, holder of the EU presidency, the service will be written into the text of the Constitution that is expected to be agreed at the Brussels summit next Friday.
It is to be set up by Javier Solana, the EU’s current foreign policy chief, who now seems certain to become its first fully-fledged foreign minister.
But neither the diplomatic service — officially called the European external action service — nor the ministerial post will come into existence until the Constitution has been ratified in all 25 EU member states.
The Netherlands, taking over the presidency from Ireland on July 1, has pledged to begin work immediately.
British diplomats said that this is not a ”red line” issue for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, unlike his insistence on maintaining the national veto on tax, social security and defence.
The EU service is expected to consist of seconded national diplomats and civil servants from the council of ministers in Brussels.
The European commission — the EU’s supranational executive — already has 123 missions abroad, but its activities are limited to trade and aid. The diplomatic service is seen as a vital tool in the service of the EU’s nascent common foreign and security policies.
Smaller member states are especially keen on this, and fret about the instinct of the bigger ones such as Britain, France and Germany to act alone — as they did over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Under the draft Constitution, the job of Chris Patten, the British commissioner for external relations, will be subsumed into the work of the EU foreign minister, who will serve both the commission and national governments, marrying both political clout and financial resources.
To complicate matters, the climax of the negotiations has got caught up with the question of who will succeed Romano Prodi at the commission. Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian Prime Minister, leads the race, though Britain thinks he is too too anti-American. — Guardian Unlimited Â