After the new European Commission assumed office in full on December 1, 2024, tensions in Brussels have grown over how external competencies are balanced. In formal terms, EU foreign policy is the remit of High Representative Kaja Kallas, backed by the European External Action Service. Yet in recent months it has become increasingly evident that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expanding her own influence over strategic decision-making—from the Ukraine portfolio to defence and institutional policy.
A series of Commission-driven initiatives, along with the transfer of several senior officials from the European External Action Service into Commission structures, has reinforced the sense that authority is gradually shifting toward the president’s office. As a result, Kallas finds herself in a position where her role is significant on paper but constrained in practice, while the diplomatic service is steadily losing functions once viewed as its exclusive domain.
According to sources cited by Le Monde, Ursula von der Leyen has been gradually taking on the functions of the EU’s chief diplomat, leaving Kaja Kallas increasingly isolated and without institutional backing. One interlocutor compared the unfolding situation to “Game of Thrones”.
The newspaper describes a “near-obsessive drive” within the Commission’s leadership to concentrate levers of influence in its own hands and to prevent the emergence of any even minimally autonomous decision-making centres. As a result, Commission structures have begun duplicating the work of the European External Action Service, which many in Brussels now regard as increasingly ineffective.
Several senior officials from the European External Action Service have already moved to the Commission, and the service is regularly confronted with interventions from the executive branch. Inside, comparisons to a “sinking ship” are heard with growing frequency.
In this environment, Kallas is losing the ability to pursue her own course: the various directorates-general responsible for external relations now act independently or follow the guidance of von der Leyen’s team. The high representative herself failed to secure sufficient backing in EU capitals, leaving her with virtually no one to rely on.
“In principle, the diplomatic service should produce strategic and political analysis across all portfolios and then coordinate its work with the Commission’s departments to activate the necessary financial instruments,” the source explains. “Today, that analysis is already being carried out directly within the Commission.”