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Why does Kaja Kallas face such a difficult job as High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy?

Publishing date
22 July 2024
Authors
Heather Grabbe
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heather hrvp memo nl title

Fifteen years ago, European Union countries decided they needed a single high-level person to coordinate external policies and represent Europe in the world. They created a High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission (HRVP), with the intention of bringing together the EU’s diplomacy with its money.

This job has become much more difficult since. It was designed for a rules-based world built on principles, where the EU was a force of attraction because of its market size, prosperity and good governance. Five years ago, few Europeans worried about their reliance on Russian energy and Chinese supply chains and engagement in conflicts was largely a matter of choice.

Today the EU is weaker and more vulnerable, facing Russian aggression on its borders and a conflict in the Middle East where it has little influence. Economic security has become a much bigger priority, but the EU has little clout in the US-China rivalry. Internal problems with rule-of-law violations and democracies undermined by disinformation have reduced Europe’s self-confidence in defending its values abroad. Rampant free-riding by one EU country, Hungary, is frequently undermining common positions.

The HRVP’s coordination and representation responsibilities are more important than ever, but the institutional arrangements will make it hard for the newly appointed Kaja Kallas to exercise her powers in practice. The EU needs to make a clear choice: either to empower Kallas to coordinate all external policies and restore her position to that of First Vice-President of the Commission, including supervision of defence; or to clarify the functions that she should keep in the now shrunken role. The first option is preferable but most important is to make a choice. The EU cannot afford to continue a dysfunctional system in such a challenging world.

Read the full memo 'Adapt to a harsher world: Memo to the High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy' by Alicia García-Herrero, Heather Grabbe and Jean Pisani-Ferry

The Why Axis is a weekly newsletter distributed by Bruegel, bringing you the latest research on European economic policy. 

About the authors

  • Heather Grabbe

    Heather Grabbe is a Senior fellow at Bruegel, as well as visiting professor at University College London and KU Leuven. The focus of her research is the political economy of the European Green Deal and how the climate transition will change the EU’s international relationships and external policies.

    She is a political scientist who has served as director of the Open Society European Policy Institute in Brussels, and earlier as deputy director of the Centre for European Reform in London. She conducted academic research at the European University Institute, Chatham House, Oxford and Birmingham universities, as well as teaching at the London School of Economics. From 2004 to 2009 Heather was senior advisor to then European Commissioner Olli Rehn, responsible in his Cabinet for policy on the Balkans and Turkey. She has written extensively on the political economy of EU enlargement, the EU’s external and neighbourhood policies, and the evolution of new policy agendas in climate, digital and the rule of law. Her columns appear in the Financial Times, Politico and other quality media.

    Heather earned her PhD at Birmingham University, and her first degree in politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University, where she also had a post-doctoral fellowship. She is fluent in English, French and Italian, with working level German.

Theme
Macroeconomic policy and governance
Keyword
WhyAxis newsletter
Language
English

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