Baroness Ashton [the EU’s foreign policy chief] is to spend £8.5 million polishing the image of her new EU diplomatic service despite having four spin doctors of her own and the free use of the European Commission’s 1,000-strong communications staff. The substantial sum of money, equivalent to a third of the £30 million allocated for the Libyan refugee crisis this week, has raised questions over the EU foreign minister’s priorities at a time when European diplomacy is struggling to keep up with events in the Arab world.
Lady Ashton, 54, has come under fire for leaving the post of special EU envoy to the Middle East empty at the height of turmoil in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and the wider region while she considers whether to scrap the position. Marc Otte, a Belgian diplomat, was not replaced after his term ended this week and it will probably be the autumn before the EU decides to name a new envoy.
The multi-million contract has been tendered to pay public relations consultants to make propaganda videos “to illustrate to the general public the increasing importance of the role of the EU as a global actor in peace building and crisis management”.
Money is also set aside to “support to networking activities” including VIP visits, lunches or dinners, “three courses with waiter service and wine”, and the inevitable diplomatic cocktail receptions with “champagne and top-of-the-range appetisers”.
‘1,000 strong communications staff,’ ‘networking activities,’ where to begin? Well, perhaps with those ‘top-of-the-range-appetizers.’
That said, the news that there is no ‘special EU envoy to the Middle East’ comes as a relief. Such matters should be handled by nation states, not the international bureaucratic class.
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