{"id":129331,"date":"2026-09-03T02:38:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T02:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/129331\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T02:38:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T02:38:35","slug":"inside-kallas-fightback-against-plans-to-tear-up-the-eus-diplomatic-service-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/129331\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Kallas\u2019 fightback against plans to tear up the EU\u2019s diplomatic service \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The group would include the EEAS\u2019 former secretary-general, Bel\u00e9n Mart\u00ednez Carbonell, who has delayed taking up a new role as head of the EU delegation in Mexico to advise Ollongren. Senior EEAS official Charles Fries is also set to contribute, according to the officials and the diplomat.<\/p>\n<p>The push seeks to give the EEAS more control over a reform debate that could determine whether the service remains a distinct part of the EU\u2019s foreign policy machinery or becomes more closely integrated into the Commission.<\/p>\n<p>The Franco-German plans, set out in a paper seen by POLITICO, include moving much of the EEAS staff into the EU executive. Although they call for reinforcing Kallas\u2019 formal role, her allies see them potentially allowing von der Leyen\u2019s Commission to take greater control of foreign policy.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2156712086-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8942018\"  \/>Kajsa Ollongren,  who has been touring EU capitals to discuss reform proposals with national governments, making a statement during a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels in June 2024. | Simon Wohlfahrt\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The EEAS currently straddles the Council and the Commission: Kallas works with national governments in the Council, where foreign policy decisions are made, while the service coordinates with the Commission on its external-facing work.<\/p>\n<p>Kallas signaled her concern about the plans on Wednesday, saying a \u201cmajority\u201d of EU foreign ministers had opposed the institutional change.<\/p>\n<p>In recent days, in addition to the Franco-German discussion paper on the EEAS, 11 capitals including Paris and Berlin signed an open letter to Kallas <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/eu-foreign-policy-france-germany-qualified-majority-voting\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">calling for more efficient decision-making in EU foreign policy<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The group would include the EEAS\u2019 former secretary-general, Bel\u00e9n Mart\u00ednez Carbonell, who has delayed taking up a new&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[81,505,39,40,56,3240,302,4365,30,118,16,28,63],"class_list":["post-129331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-china","tag-conflict","tag-eu","tag-european-union","tag-foreign-policy","tag-ireland","tag-kaja-kallas","tag-mexico","tag-middle-east","tag-negotiations","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}