A conference at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) presented a number of policy priorities for the incoming European Commission, but above all underlined the importance for the EU of speedily getting to grips with the many unanswered questions concerning the set-up of the European institutions in the Lisbon Treaty era.
As EU leaders meet in Brussels today to decide on a first permanent president of the European Council and a new souped-up foreign minister, the CEPS experts cautioned that while a media frenzy continues to rage over the potential candidates for these positions, the EU must get its house in order if, as it hopes, the new treaty and positions will finally allow the 27-member bloc to become a key player on the global stage.
"The grand strategic question," notes CEPS senior fellow Michael Emerson, "is what the EU is going to do on the global level". The goal, he argued, should be for the EU to become "the leading proponent of normative foreign policy in the world".
Such a process will not happen overnight, he cautioned, emphasising that many of the mediocre aspects of EU foreign policy are likely to remain for some time.
For example, Emerson noted that the current situation whereby the EU as well as numerous EU member states holds seats on international bodies is "absurd". On the UN Security Council, France and the UK hold permanent seats while the EU has none, and other organisations, such as the OSCE, are characterised by "over-representation of small member states and under-representation of the EU".
New Brussels power games
Meanwhile, internally, plenty of problems loom on the Lisbon Treaty horizon.
Former Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) John Bruton, until very recently the EU's ambassador to the USA and himself a long-shot candidate for the EU president job, noted at the conference that while the Council president would chair meetings of EU leaders, the system of rotating EU presidencies between EU member states would continue.
Therefore, while the EU new president and foreign minister will chair the meetings of EU heads of state and foreign ministers, respectively, the country with the rotating presidency – starting with Spain in January 2010 – will chair the meetings of all other ministers.
"Ensuring that the work of the rotating presidency country follows priorities that are coherent with the overall plan of the council presidency will be a major task," Bruton noted, adding that this is not something that will simply fall into place.
It is equally unclear, said Bruton, how the new high representative will juggle the double-hatted role of being a globe-trotting EU foreign minister while also serving as a vice-president of the Commission. On a practical level, the former Irish PM argued that the high rep could face intense schedule difficulties because the position does not have its own private airplane, complicating the business of criss-crossing the world while also attempting to represent his/her home country at weekly Commission meetings.
In fact, Bruton believes the EU president may occasionally need to "fill in the gaps" for the high rep when the latter is unable to travel. The relationship between the two new positions will be absolutely crucial, he argued. "They will need each other," he concluded.
CEPS fellow Piotr Kaczynski elaborated on the question marks surrounding the high rep, noting that nobody knows how the relationship between the holder of the new position and Commission President José Manuel Barroso will play out. "Is Barroso his/her boss?" he asked.
The high rep will have a very special position in the new commission, he said, but nobody is quite sure how it will evolve.
Finally, Kaczynski alluded to yet another undefined relationship, namely that between the high rep and the other commissioners, particularly those in the so-called "RELEX (external relations) family" – development and trade officials. There are many massive changes and many uncertainties ahead, he concluded.
