EU diplomacy overhaul push meets Kallas resistance

EU foreign ministers opened talks in Ireland on Wednesday on possible changes to the bloc's diplomacy, but foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the current institutional setup should not be changed.

Officials said France and Germany had floated ideas to overhaul the EU's diplomatic arm, potentially moving parts of it into the European Commission. The debate has raised concerns that Kallas's role could be further narrowed under European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the proposals had caused controversy, but that the shared aim was for the European Union to carry more weight internationally.

After the ministerial talks, Kallas said there was broad support for keeping the existing structure and improving how it works. She said smaller EU states feared losing too much control over foreign policy if the commission took charge.

Kallas said the priority should be to streamline EU decision-making, including by looking at ways to limit the ability of one member state to hold up the rest of the bloc.

The European External Action Service has an annual budget of about one billion euros, or $1.2 billion, and employs about 5,000 people in Brussels and at missions abroad.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Germany was planning to organise a meeting of ministers in Berlin to discuss the proposals.