Germany and France float plan to bring Kallas under von der Leyen’s supervision
A Franco-German Blueprint to Reshape EU Foreign Policy Architecture
Poinews.com – Two of the bloc's most influential capitals have jointly tabled a proposal that would fundamentally alter how the European Union conducts its external affairs. Under the scheme, High Representative Kaja Kallas would be placed under the direct operational supervision of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, effectively collapsing the long-standing institutional separation between the Commission and the European External Action Service. The proposal is scheduled for discussion on Wednesday at an informal gathering of EU foreign ministers in Wicklow, Ireland — a session Kallas herself will chair, lending the proceedings an unmistakable personal dimension.
The Structural Problem at the Heart of EU Diplomacy
The Franco-German initiative targets what its architects describe as one of the bloc's most enduring structural flaws: institutional cacophony in external action. The Treaty of Lisbon established a dual-track system in which the High Representative commands the EEAS, formulating and executing foreign policy on behalf of all 27 member states, while simultaneously holding a vice-presidency within the Commission. In theory, this arrangement allows a single figure to bridge diplomatic and economic instruments. In practice, the most consequential levers of international influence — trade policy, energy strategy, climate negotiations, migration management — sit squarely within the Commission's competence. Enlargement, a domain with pronounced geopolitical stakes, likewise remains under Commission control. The result is a foreign policy apparatus that frequently speaks with competing voices and limited material capacity to enforce coherence.
Von der Leyen's Expanding Footprint
The ambiguity embedded in the Lisbon architecture has, over recent years, been exploited in one direction. Von der Leyen has substantially widened her personal foreign-policy footprint, most visibly in her response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She has made extensive trips to sign high-profile agreements and to project a unified European position on global crises. EU leaders have frequently encouraged her to take the lead in such moments. Yet the expansion has not gone unchallenged. In several member-state capitals, commentators and officials have raised concerns about what they characterize as overreach and a power grab, even as they simultaneously press her to act decisively on international emergencies.
What the Reform Would Actually Change
The German-Franco text envisions giving Kallas a hands-on coordination role over foreign-related portfolios currently managed by individual Commission directorates. These include development assistance (DG INTPA), humanitarian operations (DG ECHO), defence industry policy (DG DEFIS), and neighbourhood relations, which are divided between DG ENEST covering Eastern Europe and DG MENA covering the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf. Trade, a portfolio of considerable strategic weight, could also be folded into the new coordination structure. A dedicated foreign-policy department would be created within the Commission to anchor the revised arrangement.
The institutional precedent is not entirely new. The Commission once operated a Directorate-General for External Relations (DG RELEX) before that body was absorbed into the EEAS in 2010. The current proposal would, in effect, reverse part of that consolidation by re-embedding foreign-policy coordination inside the Commission's executive structure while retaining the EEAS as a subordinate instrument.
Hierarchical Logic and Member-State Voice
Although Kallas would acquire broader operational responsibilities within the Commission, the ultimate authority would remain with von der Leyen as Commission president. The architects of the plan draw an explicit analogy to national-level governance: the relationship would mirror that between a prime minister and a foreign minister, with the Commission president setting direction and the High Representative executing. The EEAS, which Kallas presently leads independently of von der Leyen, would be structurally weakened to reduce the risk of institutional collision between the two institutions.
Simultaneously, the proposal seeks to amplify the voice of member states in shaping foreign policy direction. Implementation would require amending the 2010 Council decision that established the EEAS — not the Treaty of Lisbon itself — though a unanimous vote of all 27 governments would still be necessary.
A Reform Debate Already Underway
The timing is not accidental. A period of sustained global turbulence has exposed the fragility of the bloc's external-action capacity, and member states broadly concede that comprehensive reform is overdue. What remains contested is the direction of travel. In June, a French working paper laid out three options for restructuring the High Representative's role: expanding her powers, transferring them to the Commission, or transferring them to the member states. The latter two options would, in substance, hollow out the position as an independent diplomatic actor.
The document prompted Kallas to issue a message of reassurance to EEAS staff, signalling that the role would not be dismantled. She subsequently called on national capitals to put forward concrete proposals for improving the external action — a request that the current Franco-German text appears to answer, at least in part, by offering a specific institutional mechanism rather than an open-ended debate.
Whether the Wicklow discussion yields a workable compromise, or merely deepens the existing disagreement over where foreign-policy authority should reside, will depend on whether smaller member states accept a framework that concentrates greater executive weight in the Commission while nominally preserving their veto through the unanimity requirement. The question is no longer whether the architecture needs repair; it is who controls the tools.
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