Due to budget constraints, the bloc wants to reduce staff and focus on countries "where the main interests of the EU are located." This is reported by Politico, reports UNN.
Details
The European Commission is pushing ahead with plans to dramatically reduce staff at many of its embassies in order to increase staff in countries where it believes the bloc has strategic interests.
"We will leave a tiny delegation in places like Sudan or Niger, which is just the wrong signal, especially when we have a US administration that seems less interested in the outside world,"
Another official said there are clear concerns in internal discussions about the project that Russia or China could fill any vacuum we create.
The proposed cuts were the result of the EU's External Relations Service (EEAS), the bloc's diplomatic division, failing to meet the 2024 budget. Next year, its performance could be even worse due to rising spending and inflation, which would force cuts.
The bloc has 145 delegations around the world that function as embassies of the European Union. Now EU officials are preparing ideas for a more "targeted approach" to their embassies. Brussels is mainly focused on countries that seek to join the EU or are in close proximity to the bloc, the G20 countries, new "political and economic States" and countries where "instability poses a threat to EU interests".
The EU now wants to step up its global influence amid Donald Trump's second presidency, Russia's war in Ukraine, and accusations of double standards over the war in Ukraine and the war in the Middle East.
Recall
The European Commission announced the 15th package of sanctions against Russia, which will not contain economic restrictions, but will expand the black list of individuals and companies.