European Union diplomacy: what role for training? EU Diplomacy Paper 03/2012, May 2012

摘要

This paper examines how and why the European Union’s (EU) external relationstraining developed over time. In the European Commission diplomatic trainingbegan rather late in the 1990s but within a few years it gained momentum, inparticular in the run-up to the establishment of the European External Action Service(EEAS). Overall, the EU’s approach to external relations training has been ratherreactive and poorly coordinated across different initiatives. The EEAS offers theopportunity to develop a more coherent and more strategic long-term trainingconcept. Both internal and external factors account for the incremental developmentof the EU’s external relations training. On the one hand, it underwent changesin response to Treaty reforms and the development of external action as well owingto more general administrative reforms in the Commission. On the other hand,external factors such as the changing nature of diplomacy itself or of trainingmethodologies can be expected to have an impact on training needs and forms.The heterogeneous composition, expanded tasks and envisaged impact of the EEAScall for a joint professional training of its staff in order to promote socialisation effectstoward of a common diplomatic culture and ‘esprit de corps’. In addition toimparting relevant knowledge and skills, training could thus serve as a strategic toolfor the development of the Service and of EU external action. Yet, member stateshave different traditions of diplomatic training and diverging views on the additionalneed for training of their diplomats. Also the EU institutions appear to have apreference for the preservation of their own training initiatives at the expense of amore ambitious and more coherent approach.