The verdict is in: European Union diplomats are useless. But this isn’t the view of one of the EU’s usual detractors. It’s the assessment of Josep Borrell, Brussels’ very own foreign affairs chief.
In a damning briefing to the European External Action Service, Borrell said he was fed up finding out information from newspapers before hearing it from his own officials.
‘Quickly for the European standard means a couple of months,’ said Borrell
‘This is not a moment when we are going to send flowers to all of you saying that you are beautiful, you work very well and we are very happy, we are one big family,’ Borrell said, before launching into his furious rebuke to diplomats at an icy meeting this week.
‘I do not want to blame and shame but this is something that I have to tell you. I want you to be more reactive, 24 hours a day. I need you to report fast, in real time, on what is happening in your countries,’ he said. ‘I want to be informed by you, not by the press. Sometimes, I knew more of what was happening somewhere by reading the newspapers than reading your reports. Your reports come sometimes too late.’
The Spaniard also poured scorn on the speed with which the EU has worked to establish a military training mission for the Ukrainian armed forces.
‘We had been discussing about the Ukrainian training mission before the war…for months,’ he said. ‘Then the war comes and people said, ‘Oh, we should have done it. Yeah, we should have done it. And now we are doing it quickly.’ Well, quickly. For the standards of European standards’.
‘Quickly for the European standard means a couple of months,’ he added.
‘Glad to open the EU Ambassadors conference; it is great to meet again in person!,’ Borrell wrote after yesterday’s meeting. Mr S doubts that the diplomats working under him enjoyed the event as much as he did…
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