Two years after its launch, Gerhard Sabathil of the EEAS and Rosa Balfour of the European Policy Centre take stock
Rosa Balfour, who heads the “Europe in the World” program at the European Policy Centre in Brussels, identified two central problems that have troubled the EEAS in its first years. First, many EU member states continue to view the EEAS with skepticism, while only few support it. “Many member states do not see the EEAS as an instrument to devise a more efficient and coherent European foreign policy but as a tool to influence it,” Balfour explained. The second problem she highlighted is the relationship between the EEAS and the European Commission. In this issue, many questions regarding areas of responsibilities and financial issues remain unsolved. Because of these tensions, the EEAS often still works rather inefficiently. Although the review published this July offers solutions for many of the problems in the field of organizational structure, the fundamental political tensions between the EEAS and individual member states still has to be addressed.
Gerhard Sabathil, the director for East Asia, Australia, and the Pacific at the EEAS, described the complex reality facing the EEAS when it first began its work. Considering the numerous challenges it has faced in its first years, the EEAS has assumed more the role of a coordinator than of a leader in establishing a common EU foreign and security policy. According to Sabathil, however, even this task has proved difficult, as most individual member states still pursue their own independent strategies in many areas. The question now is whether or not the debate of 2010 about the design and goals of the EEAS will be reopened on the basis of the experience of the last two years.
Gerhard Sabathil is director for East Asia, Australia, and the Pacific at the European External Action Service. Rosa Balfour is head of the “Europe in the World” program at the European Policy Center in Brussels.
The panelists were invited by the DGAP’s Alfred von Oppenheim Center for European Policy Studies as part of its “Brussels Briefing” series. The event was moderated by Almut Möller, head of the Oppenheim Center.
