European foreign ministers have reached a ‘political agreement’ on the future EU diplomatic service, officials said.
The new service is designed to help better project the EU's foreign policy across the world on a range of issues from conflict resolution to trade to development aid.
Minister with Special Responsibility for European Affairs Dick Roche, who negotiated the deal on Ireland’s behalf, said: ‘our agreement today on the External Action Service is a step closer to a stronger more coherent voice for Europe on the world stage’.
However, agreeing the make-up of the new body and how top posts will be allocated has proved difficult.
The External Action Service will effectively combine the existing work the European Commission does abroad with a more political input from the 27 member states.
At present, the European Commission has some 5,200 staff working in their overseas offices. The new EAS will expand this to 7,000, one third of which will be based in Brussels.
At the head of the body will be Catherine Ashton, the new High Representative for Foreign Policy, who was appointed to the post once Ireland ratified the Lisbon Treaty in October.
One of the thorniest issues has been the appointment of the Heads of Delegation, effectively the EU Ambassadors, who will eventually run the 136 EU embassies abroad.
Foreign ministers have been negotiating what kind of background they should have, what their powers will be, their role in trade matters and in disbursing the millions of euro in development aid that the European Commission traditionally spends.
As it stands, the members of the new service will come one third from the Commission, one third from member states and one third from the Council Secretariat, the body which represents and administers member states' interests in Brussels.
Ireland is understood to be putting nine candidates forward from its diplomatic service.
The current ambassadors to Madrid (Justin Harman) and Beijing (Declan Kelleher) are among those thought to have a good chance of securing Head of Delegation positions.
Meanwhile, Irishman David O'Sullivan, currently the secretary general of the Commission's overseas trade division (DG Trade), has been tipped to become one of three secretary generals who will report directly to Ms Ashton.
However, the fact that Irishwoman Catherine Day is already the top civil servant in the European Commission may complicate this.
With the agreement of EU foreign ministers in place, the new service will have to be approved by the European Parliament, which has so far expressed reservations about the staffing, powers and budget of the EAS.
Among the more sensitive issues are to what extent the EU's multi-million euro development aid budget will become a tool of EU foreign policy as it evolves, although all EU humanitarian aid will continue to be allocated by the EU's independent crisis agency ECHO.
The parliament also wants to have oversight powers over the new ambassadors.
Some 30 ambassadors will be appointed initially once agreement has been reached. It is hoped the EAS will be fully operational by the end of 2011.
