Resolution on the institutional aspects of the European External Action Service

In its resolution on the future European External Action Service (EEAS), the European reminded the Commission that a decision to set up the EEAS cannot be taken without Parliament's agreement. It called on the Commission, in its preparatory work on the EEAS, to put its full weight behind further developing the Community model in the Union’s external relations.

Parliament urged the Commission, in making future proposals, to insist on compliance with the following principles, in accordance with the tenor and purpose of the provisions of the Constitution and the spirit of the deliberations of the Convention on the Constitution:

-the EEAS should be staffed in appropriate and balanced proportions by officials from the Commission, the General Secretariat of the Council and national diplomatic services;

-the EEAS should take a form enabling the Union to act coherently in its external relations; in particular, the units dealing with CFSP matters in the stricter sense and officials holding senior positions in the delegations should be brought under the umbrella of the EEAS;

-it is not necessary to strip all the Commission directorates-general of their external relations responsibilities; the progress report submitted to the European Council should provide a discussion model for the departments concerned (for example the trade, development and enlargement DGs, the Europe Aid Cooperation Office, the Humanitarian Aid Office and the externally oriented units of the Economic and Financial Affairs DG);

-Commission delegations in non-member countries and the Council liaison offices should be merged to form ‘Union embassies’, headed by EEAS officials, who would take their instructions from and be subject to the supervision of the Foreign Minister, but belong administratively to the Commission staff, which would not prevent specialist advisers to these delegations being recruited from other Commission or Parliament DGs.