EU members could revolt against Kallas’ powers – FT
Published 11 Jun, 2026 12:11 | Updated 11 Jun, 2026 14:07
EU member states could seek to curtail the powers of the bloc’s diplomatic service, headed by Kaja Kallas, amid concerns among officials that the body is “dysfunctional,” the Financial Times has reported.
The European External Action Service (EEAS) was launched in 2010 as a kind of collective foreign ministry for the EU, overseeing international relations, aid programs, and intelligence gathering and analysis.
France has outlined possible reforms of the EEAS for consideration by member states, the FT reported on Thursday.
One option would return some of the service’s functions to the European Commission and national governments, although this would require unanimous approval by member states. Another proposal, which supporters say could be implemented without changing EU treaties, would limit the autonomy of the EEAS chief and loosen her control over more than 140 missions the EU maintains worldwide.
“Capitals are annoyed and want an effective way for us to act in unison externally,” one of five officials cited by the FT said. “It is clear that [the EEAS] doesn’t work the way it should in today’s world. It is dysfunctional,” another said.
Commenting on the report, Russian presidential adviser Kirill Dmitriev said Kallas has “succeeded in annoying everyone.”
Kallas and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have reportedly been locked in a tug of war over who should steer EU foreign policy. The former German defense minister is said to have outmaneuvered the former Estonian prime minister in the bureaucratic battle, taking direct control in key geographic areas and pushing for a new intelligence body that would answer directly to her office.
Kallas accused of going off-script on China
Kallas has on several occasions made remarks on sensitive issues, including relations with China, that appeared to reflect her own views rather than the EU’s agreed position, while also advancing proposals some officials considered unwarranted, the FT said.
Last year, Kallas criticized the administration of US President Donald Trump for arguing that Ukraine could not defeat Russia militarily even with continued Western aid and sanctions. “If you’re saying that we collectively are not able to really pressure Russia…, then how do you say that you’re able to take on China?” she asked. The moderator at the Hudson Institute event joked that the remark would be removed from the recording.
In May, Kallas denounced Beijing for what she described as “coercive economic practices” and claimed that the West’s inability to compete with Chinese companies was a “disease.” She compared government subsidies to increasing a cancer patient’s morphine dosage and urged retaliatory measures – chemotherapy in her metaphor.
EU and China at economic loggerheads
French President Emmanuel Macron made a state visit to China last December, followed by a similar trip by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in February. The leaders of the EU’s two largest economies brought with them major industrial figures, who signed significant deals with Chinese counterparts.
The EU’s stated policy toward China is to “de-risk” economic ties. However, the turbulence that the Trump administration has added to the global economy, along with the doubts it has raised over NATO protections, has pushed European nations to reassess their positions.
In a separate story on Thursday, the FT reported that Beijing has canceled two senior meetings with EU officials on trade issues scheduled for this month. The British newspaper said the gestures were part of Chinese deterrence against measures proposed by Brussels to reduce trade deficit. The gap widened to €1 billion ($1.15 billion) a day in 2025, with EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic calling it “unsustainable.”
EU chose Kallas as a Russia hawk
Kallas stepped down as Estonian prime minister after her popularity at home sank, partly due to a scandal involving her husband’s business interests in Russia. She joined von der Leyen’s second commission in December 2024 as an official who “eats Russians for breakfast,” as some media outlets put it.
The EU is currently debating who should represent the bloc in any direct negotiations with Russia. When asked last month whether she wanted the role, Kallas said the debate itself was a Russian “trap,” adding that her job description is “in the treaties.”
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Von der Leyen suffers new ‘Pfizergate’ judgement
Published 11 Jun, 2026 18:46 | Updated 12 Jun, 2026 09:10
The European Commission should have revealed the details of its Covid-19 vaccine contracts with drugmakers to the public, an adviser to the EU’s highest court has declared. Among the contracts was a deal with Pfizer that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen negotiated via text message.
In an opinion published on Thursday, Advocate General Athanasios Rantos argued that the commission’s insistence on secrecy made it impossible to know whether its vaccine negotiators had any conflicts of interest with the pharmaceutical companies that they procured the shots from.
The commission signed six advance purchase agreements with pharmaceutical companies – including Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Moderna – between 2020 and 2021. The contracts were worth a combined €71 billion ($82 billion).
When Green MEPs and more than 3,000 members of the public demanded information about the negotiation process, the commission redacted the names of all of its negotiators and many of the contract clauses. The commission’s lawyers have argued that these redactions were made to protect the negotiators from “conspiracy theorists.”
Conspiracy theorists have a habit of leaking the truth which would be disastrous for the crooked negotiators.
The commission lost a legal battle to keep these details secret in 2024, but appealed the decision up to the Court of Justice of the European Union. Rantos’ opinion is not legally binding, but will inform the court’s final ruling.
Last year, the court ruled against von der Leyen in the ‘Pfizergate’ case, which centered around her negotiations with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. In 2021, von der Leyen told the New York Times that she had been negotiating a €35 billion deal for 900 million Covid vaccine doses with Bourla via sms messages.
The newspaper sued for access to the messages, arguing that von der Leyen could have used sms messaging to bypass EU transparency laws. The commission claimed that the messages had been lost, but the court ruled last May that the EU’s executive body failed to provide “credible explanations enabling the public and the Court to understand why those documents cannot be found.”
Von der Leyen survived a no-confidence vote initiated by right-wing parties in the European Parliament over the scandal last July.
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