MEPs remind Cathy Ashton of her promises
(In Strasbourg) It's not what was promised. Here is the substance of the letter which the representatives of the main European political parties are preparing to submit to the High Representative, Cathy Ashton, on the European External Action Service (EEAS). Elmar Brok and Andrey Kovatchev (for the EPP), Roberto Gualtieri (for the Socials and Democrats), Alexander Graf Lambsdorff and Guy Verhofstadt (for the Liberals and Democrats) and Franziska Brantner (for the Greens) criticize in particular the internal structure of the new service diplomacy on crisis management and peacekeeping structures as well as gender balance. And they are asking the High Representative to keep her promises, quickly, a little faster than usual...
First reason for anger: crisis management structures
MEPs refer to Cathy Ashton's promise to the European Parliament (EP) on 8 July 2010 to create an "appropriate structure" and then to her letter dated 7 September to Gabriele Albertini, Chairman of the European Affairs Committee of the EP, to create a "department dedicated to peacekeeping and crisis response (which) would have equal rank with the other crisis management departments such as the CMPD, the CPCC and the military staff, responsible for (among other things) the preparation of crisis response actions under the Instrument for Stability". MEPs find no trace of the "appropriate structure" in the organization chart and ask the High Representative for explanations.
Indeed, it suffices to take a look at the organization chart to see that the promise made to MEPs has not been kept. There is indeed a "department director", entrusted to the Italian Miozzo, but without any administrative unit attached. Only staff: a few elements that would be detached from the SitCen (the EU intelligence center, in charge of consular protection). A director without troops without an administration is generally doomed to inaction. The staff of the Commission's former DG Relex have, in fact, been placed in another "horizontal" direction. While the management structures of the PeSDC appear in an isolated bubble as this blog has already reported.
2nd reason for wrath: the instrument of stability.
The Instrument for Stability is the financial instrument par excellence for crisis management. However, the staff managing this Instrument has remained, for the most part, ... at the European Commission. In other words, nothing has changed. MEPs are therefore calling for "the transfer of 17 posts (12 administrators and 5 assistants) which previously dealt with the planning and programming of crisis response measures and which were "recently transferred to the service of the instruments of the the Commission's foreign policy". Parliament thus recalls that it has placed a reserve on the 2011 budget for the diplomatic service for this purpose.
3rd problem: the balance between men and women
“We are particularly disappointed with the very low number of women at management level,” explain the MEPs. "A woman among the 12 members of the 'policy board'" is very little. And among the heads of unit, the male rank dominates outrageously. " We ask you to correct this untenable imbalance (which) contrasts with your public commitments ».
Put an end to the "snail reflex"
In the end, MEPs ask the High Representative for a "rapid" response. This formula, usually formal, is not so in this case. The last letter from the High Representative, dated 7 September, apparently took more than four months to reach the European Parliament... at the beginning of January 2011! The speed does not seem to be due to the Ashton firm, which gets its brushes mixed up in the various letters. It's not the first time it seems. Missions deployed in the field have also been victims of what could be called the "snail reflex".
Read also:
- A diplomatic service, in flagrante delicto of geographical imbalance
- The decision to transfer agents to the diplomatic service is approved
- The first detailed organization chart of the new diplomatic service
- Two new directors confirmed in the diplomatic service
- Finn Ilkka Salmi appointed head of SitCen
- Three other known department directors in the diplomatic service
