At the end of August, the European External Action Service (EEAS) announced that it would start “a pilot project to establish a fully fledged European diplomatic academy.” The initiative consists of diplomatic training on the EU foreign and security policies, provided to 42 young European diplomats to make them acquire skills to defend the EU’s interests in the world. The project was awarded by the College of Europe, which declared in a public statement that it would implement the project in its Bruges and Natolin campuses. The news came after the EEAS Secretary-General, Stefano Sannino, stated in June that he was excited to lay the basis of the European Diplomatic academy under the supervision of the High-Representative Joseph Borrell. While announcing the project, Borrell affirmed: “In a more challenging world with complex crises, the EU needs to have a stronger diplomatic voice. We need more well trained diplomats ready to contribute to the world’s politics. We are establishing the European Diplomatic Academy with the aim to create a truly European diplomatic corps that will further strengthen our European global action.” 

The project runs parallel to a feasibility study conducted by a consortium including the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), the European University institute (EUI) and the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). The main purpose of the feasibility study is to provide an analysis of possible models of diplomatic training in order to establish a fully fledged European diplomatic academy. Therefore, the feasibility study is a crucial aspect of the development of a potential diplomatic academy for the EU as it will shape the model used by the EEAS to set up the academy. The study will be ready in November 2022.

An interesting aspect of the pilot project is that it trains, along with young diplomats from the EU member states, diplomats from Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Turkey and Western Balkan countries. The inclusion of some countries which are not member states of the Union demonstrates the EU’s keenness to use EU diplomacy and foreign policy as a potential instrument to attract countries to the Union through its enlargement process. Moreover, it clearly shows that the EU is willing to invest in the development of its diplomatic corps on a long term basis and that the CFSP might increasingly become one of the core tenets of EU membership. Diplomatic training is indeed usually exclusively aimed for a state’s new diplomats and is known for its secrecy in the teaching of the national interest and the conduct of foreign policy. The inclusion of young diplomats from non-member states suggests the increasing value of the foreign policy of the EU.

The creation of the pilot project has the strong potential to increase the EU’s role as a diplomatic actor and give the CFSP a more credible and geopolitically more relevant position. The EU already possesses a very large number of diplomatic missions regulating its bilateral and multilateral relations around the world. However, analysts have been skeptical about the existence of a clearly recognizable figure such as an EU diplomat. The EEAS, the EU’s diplomatic service, is indeed composed of national diplomats of the EU member states and officials from the European Commission and the Council of the EU. Hence, the creation of a diplomatic academy of the EU would be a major step towards the formation of a distinct figure of an EU diplomat. Furthermore, by providing common training to all the actors involved in EU diplomacy, the academy has the potential to construct a more perceptible ‘European’ interest when it comes to conducting foreign policy. This aspect would allow for a better distinction between national foreign policies and EU foreign policy, enhancing the focus and the credibility of the CFSP mandate.  Following Borrell’s recent criticism of the efficiency of the EU delegations around the world, the creation of a separate and distinctive EU diplomacy appears all the more necessary.