Overview
- A French internal discussion paper that surfaced on Thursday set out three main options: bring the European External Action Service under the European Commission, transfer key functions to the Council of the EU where national governments sit, or boost High Representative Kaja Kallas’s authority inside the Commission.
- The paper also contains concrete operational ideas, including shrinking more than 140 overseas delegations into about 18 regional hubs and cutting roughly 100 EEAS posts by 2027, which would affect the service’s 5,000 staff and its global footprint.
- Kaja Kallas responded in an internal email by defending the EEAS’s value, saying the service had helped during wars and crises while noting that treaty rules on institutional roles remain unchanged.
- French officials and diplomats stressed the document is an internal discussion paper rather than an approved government proposal, and any structural change would face legal limits set by the Lisbon Treaty plus the political hurdle of unanimous member-state agreement.
- The debate builds on long-running complaints about slow, fragmented EU crisis responses and a late-2025 corruption scandal that damaged EEAS credibility, and it will continue in informal talks with a ministerial-level discussion planned after the summer.