Onduidelijkheid over baan vertegenwoordigers van de EU (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - With their contracts set to expire at the end of next month, the EU i's elite squad of peace envoys, the EU Special Representatives (EUSRs), is unsure who will have a job to go to in the future.
The latest discussion between EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton i and EU member states i, held in Brussels on Monday (5 July), envisaged that one group of EUSRs will stay around until at least August 2011.
The lucky group of seven includes the envoys handling Afghanistan, the African Great Lakes, the African Union, Bosnia, Central Asia and the Georgia-Russia conflict, Kosovo and Sudan.
The other four, dealing with Macedonia, the Middle East, Moldova and the South Caucasus, are to have their contracts renewed for just six months and then to disappear once the European External Action Service (EEAS) gets up and running.
Their work might be handed over to local EU embassies, which would hire extra staff in line with their new portfolios, or given to other "senior personalities," such as EEAS director generals in Brussels, instead.
Diplomats in the member states' Political and Security Committee (PSC) are waiting for Ms Ashton to come forward with her final proposal, as well as a "strategic overview" of the EUSRs' future role, in the run-up to 26 July, when the fate of the special envoys is to be sealed at an EU foreign ministers' meeting.
Ms Ashton has faced criticism within the PSC for leaving the matter a bit late. But the uncertainty has provoked much more bad feeling in the circle of the highly-paid EUSRs and their collective body of 200-or-so staff, some of whom also face losing their posts.
"It's not normal. Our partners [diplomats from non-EU countries] are asking us if our roles will be prolonged or not. It's a complete fog and everybody's complaining," one diplomat in the EUSR milieu said.
Another contact questioned Ms Ashton's judgment: "What's astonishing in this is that some of the files that are to be extended for a short period are among the most vibrant ones, while those which are to be extended for a longer period are dead files."
Ms Ashton's entourage declined to comment, saying only that talks are "ongoing."
Meanwhile, an overwhelming majority of MEPs i in the foreign affairs committee in Strasbourg on Tuesday voted in favour of a deal between Ms Ashton and parliament on the overall structure of the EEAS.
Tuesday's result indicates the political agreement, which gives MEPs strong rights on budgetary oversight and reduces the powers of some EEAS civil servants, will win broad backing in a plenary vote on Thursday.
EU member states i will then rubber stamp the decision either at the foreign ministers' meeting on 26 July or at a mini-summit on 16 September, clearing the way for the next chapter of the EEAS saga - Ms Ashton's choice of people for the top 15 or so jobs in the new institution.