EU Diplomats are Out of Touch, Lazy, and Slow, Admits Foreign Affairs Chief

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks during a debate on the conclusion
FREDERICK FLORIN/AFP via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

The diplomats in service of the European Union are out of touch with realities on the ground, slower to report back to Brussels than newspapers, and largely lazy, EU Foreign Affairs Chief Josep Borrell admitted this week.

Speaking to envoys at the annual meeting of the Europe Union’s External Action Service (EEAS) in Brussels on Monday, Borrell laid into members of the diplomatic service that he overseas.

“This is not a moment when we are going to send flowers to all of you saying that you are beautiful, you work very well and we are very happy, we are one big family,” the outspoken Spaniard said according to The Times.

“I do not want to blame and shame but this is something that I have to tell you. I want you to be more reactive, 24 hours a day,” the EU foreign affairs chief added.

“I need you to report fast, in real time, on what is happening in your countries,” he said. “I want to be informed by you, not by the press. Sometimes, I knew more of what was happening somewhere by reading the newspapers than reading your reports. Your reports come sometimes too late.”

Borrell, who previously served as a foreign minister for Spain, highlighted the war in Ukraine as a major point of failure for the EU diplomatic corps, reportedly saying that he was informed of the February invasion from Russia by the United States before any such notice from his own diplomats.

“First, we did not believe that the war was coming,” Borrell said. “I have to recognise that here, in Brussels, the Americans were telling us, ‘They will attack, they will attack’ — and we were quite reluctant to believe it.”

He went on to say that as the war continued, the EU was blindsided by how effectively Ukraine would be able to withstand the assault from Russia, nor the ability for Vladimir Putin to escalate the war.

Finally, and perhaps most damming, the 75-year-old Eurocrat accused the External Action Service of being so out of touch with local realities on the ground that they alienate allies rather than convincing them to join onto the EU’s global agenda.

“We try to export our model, but we do not think enough about how others will perceive this. [You say] ‘This is one model, it is the best one, so you have to follow it’. For cultural, historical and economic reasons, this is no longer accepted,” he said, adding: “Remember this sentence: ‘It is the identity, stupid’.”

“It is no longer the economy, it is the identity. More and more, some identities are rising and willing to be recognised and accepted and not to be fused inside the ‘West’ approach.”

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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