EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has offered a series of concessions to MEPs in a bid to get them to sign up to the details of the new diplomatic service, but some parliamentary demands remain unanswered.
In a speech before the foreign affairs committee on Tuesday (24 March), Ms Ashton promised the house full budgetary oversight over the service, including signing off on its yearly budget, a point which occupies first place on the parliament’s wishlist.
“There is no question of the accountability of the service in financial terms to the European Parliament,” she said.
The British peer, who has to build a service which satisfies the demands of member states, the European Commission and the parliament, also appeared to suggest that MEPs will get their wish for budgetary oversight on separate EU missions.
At the moment, the parliament agrees a lump sum for EU foreign policy expenditure but has no idea how it is divided up.
“It’s incredible. There is no budget line for our mission in Somalia. We don’t know how much has been spent in Somalia on staff, on building, etc. It’s very opaque,” said German Green MEP Franziska Brantner before the parliamentary hearing.
However, Ms Ashton said: “There is no longer a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ to limit parliamentary insight and control,” referring to a decades-old pact where the parliament and council have a ‘don’t look’ policy when it comes to each other’s internal spending practices.