“You have twenty minutes to define a communication strategy for the High Representative. It’s about countering the Kremlin’s rhetoric, which blames Westerners for a global food crisis.” Welcome to the European Diplomatic Academy! In the Madeleine-Albright room of the College of Europe, in Bruges, the first promotion, divided into small groups, works on the compulsory exercise. Coming from all over the continent, 40 young diplomats debate, develop elements of language and wonder, for example, about the advisability of giving interviews in African media.
Everyone speaks in English, nationalities seem forgotten, erased behind the need to develop a common and European response. “Tool box” (toolbox), “fact sheet” (summary sheet): typical expressions of Brussels jargon emerge from the hubbub. “Concentrate on what the European Union is doing positively, don’t necessarily respond to the accusations,” recommends the teacher of the day, a Finnish diplomat who has spent a large part of her career in Brussels.
Between now and June, Kristina the Lithuanian, Filippo the Italian or Andrej the Montenegrin will acquire the necessary skills to evolve with ease in the mysteries of the community. The European Parliament has released a budget of one million euros for this pilot programme. Surprisingly, even if Paris claims to support this “good project”, no Frenchman appears in the first batch of representatives from EU countries and wider Europe. Gossip sees in it the symptom of a persistent condescension of the Quai d’Orsay towards the community universe.
“Thinking European”
The future European diplomats live together day and night, they receive approximately thirty hours of teaching per week along the Flemish canals. Many practical cases and simulations with speakers mostly from the field. As Bruges is only one hour from the European capital, many educational excursions in the Brussels bubble are also on the menu. For these young professionals, aged 25 to 41, it’s a return to student life. “You even have to get used to eating on Belgian time,” smiles one of them. All have chosen to put their careers in their ministry or in European institutions on hold to integrate the first class of the Academy. “We don’t have a training structure for young diplomats in Lithuania, confides Kristina. I’m here to improve myself.” “You are in luck, you are going to become a considerable asset for your services and for European diplomacy!” launches them a high-ranking diplomat passing through Bruges.
In nine months, it is a question of learning to switch from the national “I” to the community “we”. A European diplomat is a profession in itself, which requires an “extra soul”. “A ‘national’ diplomat knows how China and the United States work, he has learned to defend the interests of his country. But often, he lacks knowledge of the specific instruments of the EU or of the relations between the institutions The European diplomat must manage an additional level of negotiation, that of the common position between the Twenty-Seven. We need even more ability to integrate complexity”, deciphers Federica Mogherini. Now rector of the College of Europe, the Italian knows what she is talking about: she oversaw European diplomacy from 2014 to 2019. She carries this project with perceptible enthusiasm. “When the participants arrived at the end of August, they looked at each other with reserve, like representatives of their respective countries, remembers the former high representative. But they have already changed their attitude. If they are asked to ‘ think European’ for a year, they will create automatisms.”
“The human dimension plays an important role, observes Marthe, sent by Luxembourg. The affinities that are created make it possible to develop a better understanding of divergent positions.” The medieval and eccentric setting of Bruges facilitates connections. “In Bruges, there is nothing else to do but work and mingle,” recalls a former student of the College of Europe, where generations of future community officials were trained. A valuable alumni network for an entire career. “The Academy can bring about a radical change. If we train one or two promotions a year, in a decade we will have several hundred men and women diplomats with the same esprit de corps”, imagines Federica Mogherini.
“Sometimes I know more from reading the press than your reports”
This esprit de corps is precisely lacking in the young Community diplomacy. The European External Action Service (EEAS) is barely emerging from its infancy. Created in 2011, it is still seeking its place alongside national diplomacy and other European institutions. Its current leader, Josep Borrell, put his foot in the dish last October, criticizing his troops for their lack of responsiveness to crises. “I want you to report to me in real time what is happening in your countries. Sometimes I know more by reading the press than by reading your reports which arrive too late”, the Spaniard was annoyed in front of the European Union ambassadors.
These would have done well without such a spotlight. “More than the level, it is the heterogeneity of the staff that constitutes the difficulty”, nevertheless tempers a diplomat. According to its latest annual report, the EEAS employs 5,235 people in Brussels and around the world, including national diplomats seconded for up to ten years, European Commission officials and permanent staff. “The structure and governance are not comparable to those of a Ministry of Foreign Affairs, recognizes a former. When you arrive, you are a little lost.” It takes a year to become operational in this very specific environment.
Josep Borrell, who wants a powerful tool to match his ambitions for Europe, therefore places great hopes in the Academy. The Catalan even claims paternity. “This project is obvious”, underlines his entourage. The Brussels diplomacy should constitute in the future the natural outlet for future promotions. It remains to financially sustain the program over the long term. This will be the challenge for the next few months.