According to Article 15 of the Treaty of the European Union: \u2018The European Council shall provide the Union with the necessary impetus for its development and shall define the general political directions and priorities thereof.\u2019 While the Treaties originally intended the European Council\u2014the forum of the Heads of State or Government of the Member States\u2014to be the primary decision-making body of the European Union, in recent years the European Commission has taken the lead.<\/p>\n
The European Commission\u2019s growing power\u2014at the expense of the Member States\u2019 competences\u2014is well documented. Thomas Fazi of MCC Brussels claimed <\/a>more than a year ago that \u2018We have witnessed a game-changing transfer of sovereignty from the national to the supranational level, at the expense of democratic control and accountability.\u2019 <\/p>\n It is less recognized, however, that throughout this process not only the capitals have lost power\u2014but some EU institutions as well. Most recently, the EU\u2019s diplomatic corps\u2014the High Representative and the European External Action Service\u2014has been losing ground to the European Commission, which now appears intent on emerging as the EU\u2019s foreign policy chief.<\/p>\n Officially, it is the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, currently Kaja Kallas, who \u2018conducts the EU\u2019s common foreign and security policy\u2019<\/a> and represents the EU in the world of diplomacy. Recently, however, the European Commission has taken increasingly assertive steps into this domain.<\/p>\n In 2024, the Commission introduced a new post, the EU Commissioner for Defence and Space, currently Andrius Kubilius, whose responsibilities overlap with those of the High Representative in security and defence matters. Last year, the Commission also established a Directorate-General for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf, further strengthening its capacity to intervene in foreign policy issues.<\/p>\n Ursula von der Leyen additionally sought to establish an intelligence cell under her direct supervision\u2014a move reportedly opposed by Kallas, as it would have significantly reduced the High Representative\u2019s room for manoeuvre.<\/p>\n The Commission\u2019s appetite for creating parallel roles to the EU High Representative\u2019s mandate has inevitably resulted in rivalry. The corruption scandal that shook the European External Action Service (EEAS) was widely interpreted as part of the intensifying institutional conflict between the High Representative and the Commission.<\/p>\n The EEAS\u2014the EU\u2019s diplomatic body\u2014operates under the supervision of the High Representative, though it has never been entirely free from the Commission\u2019s influence. In December, three officials associated with the EEAS were briefly detained<\/a> on suspicion of involvement in a fraud case linked to EU-funded training programmes for junior diplomats.<\/p>\n Notably, figures mentioned in connection with the case\u2014including former EU chief diplomat and Commission Vice-President Federica Mogherini and Director-General Stefano Sannino\u2014were widely regarded as close affiliates of Ursula von der Leyen,<\/a> a coincidence that further fuelled perceptions of intra-institutional rivalry rather than merely administrative failure.<\/p>\n The removal of some of its affiliates did not discourage the European Commission from pursuing greater power in the field of foreign policy. The Commission\u2019s recent legal initiative, the European Democracy Shield, also appears to weaken the functions of the European External Action Service (EEAS) and, by extension, those of the EU High Representative.<\/p>\n For years, the EEAS has run a project called EU vs Disinfo<\/a>, aimed at \u2018countering disinformation\u2019\u2014an objective that closely mirrors that of the Commission\u2019s Democracy Shield initiative.<\/p>\n First, it is important to note that both the EEAS project and the Democracy Shield have been criticized as EU instruments of censorship, accused of monitoring, controlling, and cataloguing unwanted online content. Second, the Commission\u2019s effort to hollow out the EEAS\u2019s existing project by creating a parallel<\/a>, but better-resourced, mechanism is a clear indication of the Commission\u2019s expanding role\u2014and growing dominance\u2014in the field of EU foreign policy.<\/p>\n Last weekend, the escalation of the conflict in Tehran highlighted the rivalry between the European Commission President and the EU High Representative. The European Commission and European Council Presidents issued a joint statement on the matter, while the High Representative released an independent statement on the clashes in the Middle East. The press releases were finalized without <\/a>consultation between Kaja Kallas and Ursula von der Leyen. This lack of dialogue\u2014or, if not worse, the apparent unwillingness to engage\u2014clearly exposes the internal tensions between the High Representative and the Commission.<\/p>\n \u2018This lack of dialogue…clearly exposes the internal tensions between the High Representative and the Commission\u2019<\/p>\n While the European Commission\u2019s power grab is often romanticized as a way to enhance the EU\u2019s capacity to respond to crises, in reality it represents a form of centralization that undermines Member States\u2019 competences and weakens democracy. Member States\u2019 veto rights, the European Council\u2019s now hollowed leading role, and the institutional balance between Commission President and High Representative were designed to ensure checks and balances within the EU. The Commission\u2019s growing appetite to seize power across multiple fields is eroding the institutional balance enshrined in the Treaties.<\/p>\n Related articles:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to Article 15 of the Treaty of the European Union: \u2018The European Council shall provide the Union…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[140],"tags":[15050,10238,39178,3717,46906,416,40753,412,1090,10240,939,12220,1490,442,46907,12222,46908,403],"class_list":["post-85313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kaja-kallas","tag-censorship","tag-centralization","tag-corruption-scandal","tag-decision-making","tag-eeas","tag-eu","tag-eu-high-representative","tag-european-commission","tag-european-council","tag-european-democracy-shield","tag-european-union","tag-federica-mogherini","tag-foreign-policy","tag-kaja-kallas","tag-rivalry","tag-stefano-sannino","tag-supranational","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116630909239462146","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}