Letters: The EU diplomats hit back at Norman Lamont

EU diplomacy

Sir: Lord Lamont’s article ‘The EU’s scandalous new army of overpaid diplomats’ (Politics, 20 July) revisits his oft-repeated views on the European Union. It also shows scant regard for the facts and for the reality of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy.

The European External Action Service (EEAS) was created by unanimous agreement of all EU governments to project and implement EU policies in the areas covered in the EU Treaties, including trade, aid and the environment, which member states have decided are better done collectively. It has made EU external policy-making more streamlined and cohesive. It in no way duplicates the work of national diplomacies.

Cheap shots at our presence in ‘warm islands with agreeable beaches’ should not obscure the fact that the choice of location is determined by our delegations being the regional hubs for development aid programmes.

Lord Lamont is wrong to claim that EU diplomats abroad earn more and pay less tax than national diplomats. He is also wrong in his assertions on our budget, which is less than a quarter of that of the Foreign Office. The decision establishing the EEAS states that it should be ‘guided by the principle of cost-efficiency aiming towards budget neutrality. To this end transitional arrangements and a gradual build-up of capacity will have to be used.’ We have stuck absolutely to the letter of this.

The widely acknowledged role of the EEAS in a number of foreign policy issues — such as the Arab Spring, Mali, the Iran nuclear talks and the Serbia-Kosovo dialogue — illustrates the effectiveness of the EEAS and its ‘comprehensive approach’ to foreign relations.
Michael Mann
Spokesperson of High Representative/
Vice President Catherine Ashton,
EEAS, Brussels

Commonwealth tough guys

Sir: In his paean to influential ‘tough guys’ from the Commonwealth taking over powerful positions in the British establishment (‘Ruled by the colonies’, 20 July), James Forsyth states that we must go back to 1940s Britain to find a previous era when there was such an influential group of the Monarch’s overseas subjects.