Brussels, we have a problem...

The European Union’s plans to launch a common Foreign Service – whose ambassadors are due to be announced this week – have unwittingly exposed serious shortcomings in Malta’s current representation at all levels within the Union.

After six years as an EU member state, it transpires that Malta has only one single staff member on the European Commission’s Directorate General for External Relations (DG Relex), when estimates of national representation for each individual member state, drawn up by former Commissioner Neil Kinnock, establish that Malta should have no fewer than nine.

To compound matters, Malta’s solitary recruit was only appointed very recently. As of April this year – when preliminary reports were compiled regarding the levels of national representation required (and achieved) by individual member states – Malta was the only country whose official representation stood at 0%, as illustrated by the graphs on this page.

It is understood that the EU’s plans for ‘adequate geographical representation’ on the European External Action Service (i.e., the EU’s new diplomatic corps) – deemed “essential to assure a sense of ownership of the EEAS for all of the Union and for the Member States as stakeholders to identify with the action of the service from the outset” – have been hampered by Malta’s near-total absence from the most relevant of the Commission’s directorates.

Technically, EEAS officials may be recruited from three major ‘pillars’ of the EU: the European Commission (in which the DG Relex is the most relevant); the European Council, or the individual diplomatic services of member states.

But Malta’s near total under-representation in the first two of these three pillars will limit the choice of Maltese ambassador – if any – to only the local diplomatic service. 

Apart from severely limiting Malta’s ability to be adequately represented on the EEAS – where representation may serve to further national interests on an international platform – the revelation is understood also to have raised eyebrows in Brussels, as Malta is the only one of the 10 enlargement countries not to have progressed beyond 0% representation as of April this year.

This in turn raises questions about the priority given to European affairs by the government of Malta, which unlike other EU member states appears to have passed up numerous opportunities – including visits this year by the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, as well as European Council president Hermann von Rompuy – to push individual candidates for sensitive posts.

It seems our total absence from the DG Relex after six years as an EU member state has raised questions for another reason. This directorate contributes to EU policy formulation – in collaboration with other Directorates-General, notably EuropeAid, Development, Trade and Humanitarian Aid – and external relations with non-member states and regions, including (among others) the Mediterranean, Middle-East and the Persian Gulf: all areas of immediate concern to Malta’s own interests.

Meanwhile, an internal EU document, outlining the basis for geographical representation on this service, explains that “the development of a credible European foreign policy requires a common European diplomatic culture that can be formed only as a result of interaction between officials from all EU member states present in appropriate proportions in the service, including senior positions.”

In order to counteract member states’ failure to achieve adequate levels of representation, the document foresees “a temporary special fast track for nationals of under-represented Member States, in particular in relation to senior posts.”

This is justified on the basis of the importance of region-specific expertise to be brought to the EU’s foreign service by its members’ ‘geographical merit’.

“The EEAS should be staffed with the most competent personnel selected on merit, but on geographically balanced merit, these two being synergetic and not exclusive. Expertise is not geographically neutral – Member States can provide a specialised knowledge of specific regions of the world (i.e. expertise of Iberian diplomats in policy towards Latin America; unique understanding of Eastern Europe by countries from the Eastern flank of the EU).”