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The European Commission is drawing up plans to break up the EU’s diplomatic service and fold parts of it into the bloc’s executive, in response to demands from France and Germany for a sweeping overhaul of Brussels’ foreign policy machinery by the end of the year.
Senior officials have begun studying which functions of the European External Action Service (EEAS) could be absorbed by existing Commission departments, according to people briefed on the process, in what would amount to a partial reversal of one of the EU’s biggest institutional reforms of the past two decades.
The EEAS, led by EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas, has come under scrutiny from capitals that see it as struggling to co-ordinate effective responses to crises, including the wars in Ukraine and Iran, Donald Trump’s aggressive foreign policy and the growing use of economic coercion as statecraft.
The plans, involving officials from the Commission’s secretariat-general and its legal and budget divisions, are intended to cut duplication and better align the EU’s diplomatic work with the Commission’s powers over trade, aid, digital regulation and technology.
They are also designed to generate savings as national capitals press Brussels to tighten its belt in negotiations about the bloc’s next multiyear budget.
The initiative would not fold the EEAS wholesale into the Commission as a giant foreign policy directorate, the people said, but would divide its existing functions between departments to improve efficiency.
Supporters argue that folding much of the €1bn-a-year EEAS into the Commission would make EU foreign policy more coherent, reduce duplication and lower external policy spending as capitals press to shrink the bloc’s next shared budget.
EU diplomats say the broad framework for any transfer of powers could ideally be agreed in December as part of a deal on the EU’s 2028-34 budget.
The plans are at an early stage and could still change, the people cautioned. They are expected to be developed further before a summit of EU leaders next month, which Paris and Berlin — the bloc’s two largest economies and biggest diplomatic powers — want to use to discuss reform ideas.
France and Germany have proposed giving Kallas a stronger personal role in any reformed structure, with greater oversight of the Commission’s enlarged external relations portfolio.
A rump EEAS would remain outside the Commission and oversee areas such as EU peacekeeping missions and military training, the people said.
“There are ongoing reflections and discussions on how to reform and strengthen the EU’s external action,” said a Commission spokesperson.
“Taking into account the geopolitical environment, it is clear we must continuously modernise and adapt to ensure our tools, structures and decision-making processes can continue to deliver effective action. The Commission is ready to contribute to this discussion,” the spokesperson added.
An EU official said Kallas “will discuss with foreign ministers how to make the EU’s external action more efficient”, adding: “Any decisions on the future of the EEAS can only be taken with the approval of member states.”
Kallas has not publicly commented on possible changes to the service in response to the wider debate over its future.
The Franco-German push has gathered pace over the summer. A private French paper first set out options for reshaping EU foreign policy, followed by a joint declaration in July calling for a wider EU debate.
This week, a Franco-German document went further, calling for “embedding the services of the EEAS to a large extent in the Commission’s structures”.
