Extended mandates for special representatives

Member states struggle to agree on the future of the EU’s special representatives.

The European Union’s 11 special representatives (EUSRs) to crisis spots around the world are to have their mandates extended by six months because the member states cannot agree on their future.

The current mandates expire at the end of August – the date at which it was once envisaged the EU’s diplomatic services would be launched.

But with the European External Action Service (EEAS) now delayed until at least December, some kind of interim decision has to be taken on the fate of the EUSRs, who were all appointed before the Lisbon treaty came into effect, as special representatives of Javier Solana, the then EU foreign policy chief.

Disagreements

According to diplomats, member states are divided over which EUSR posts should be done away with and which should be transferred into the EEAS.

Catherine Ashton, Solana’s successor as foreign policy chief, wants fewer special representatives, believing that where a post is abolished its tasks can be taken over by the EEAS. “That logic is accepted by the member states,” a diplomat said, but added that there was persistent disagreement over who should stay and who should go. Ashton, according to officials familiar with the preparations, wants to create a senior position at EEAS headquarters on the Middle East that would take over the functions of Marc Otte, the current EUSR for the region. The EEAS would also take over the work of the EUSR for the south Caucasus, currently Peter Semneby.

The EU has three special envoys in the Balkans – for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia. The position of Pieter Feith, the EU’s envoy to Kosovo, is especially controversial. He simultaneously serves as a representatives of the international community, under a separate mandate, which complicates the EU’s position. “The member states are now looking at decoupling the International Civilian Office and the EUSR [in Kosovo] and also at whether Pieter Feith is the right person for either job,” a diplomat said. Kosovo, according to another source, was the main point disagreement among member states.

The post of EUSR for Bosnia is similarly complicated by a second mandate from the international community.

Some member states argued in favour of separating a decision on Feith, from decisions on the other EUSRs, but that view failed to command majority support.

The extension of the mandate of the special representatives is to be approved by the member states’ foreign ministers at their meeting on Monday (26 July).

? The European Commission decided on Tuesday (20 July) to extend until 1 January the life of a temporary taskforce on the eastern partnership, which was set up on 1 September 2009. The prolongation will involve delaying the retirement of the head of the taskforce, Bruno Dethomas, a former spokesman for Commission president Jacques Delors and later head of the Commission’s representations in Warsaw and Morocco.

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