‘A mess’: EU Commission accused of overstepping on foreign policy. Former top EU diplomat Josep Borrell tells POLITICO that the EEAS must take the lead on diplomacy and defense

(Jacopo Barigazzi – Politico) Former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has delivered his sharpest public criticism yet of the European Commission’s growing role in diplomacy and defense, arguing that it is straying beyond its treaty powers and creating confusion over who speaks for Europe on the world stage. In an interview with POLITICO, Borrell said the increasingly overlapping roles of the Commission and the European External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic arm, which he led from 2019 until late 2024, have created “quite a mess” within the bloc’s foreign policy machinery. “The Commission doesn’t speak representing the European Union; the Commission represents only the Commission,” Borrell said. The comments amount to the clearest public rebuke yet from a former EU top diplomat of a long-running institutional struggle that has simmered under Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. While current and former officials have privately complained that the Commission has steadily expanded its diplomatic footprint, Borrell is the first former high representative to argue so directly that the EU’s executive branch, the guardian of the treaties, has actually crossed the line laid down in EU law. – ‘A mess’: EU Commission accused of overstepping on foreign policy – POLITICO