Javier Solana: ten years is enough

Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, has told ABC, a Spanish newspaper, that he will not be seeking another term in office. In an interview published yesterday (5 July), Solana said: “I think that ten years is more than enough.” Solana has been foreign policy chief since 1999, following four years at the helm of NATO. Earlier he was a senior figure in Spain's Socialist party, serving as foreign minister in 1992-95 under then prime minister Felipe González.  

Solana, who turns 67 this month, said that the EU had done “extraordinary things” on foreign and security policy in the past decade. “When I was appointed, in 1999, nothing of what we have today existed,” he said. “We have put Europe into the world.” Solana said that he would not return to political life in Spain.  

Solana's current position as high representative for common foreign and security policy is to be completely reshaped if the Treaty of Lisbon enters into force. The EU's foreign policy chief will then also serve as a vice-president of the European Commission and oversee an EU diplomatic corps – the European external action service – which is to absorb large segments of the foreign-policy apparatus that is currently located in the European Commission.  

Solana had harboured ambitions to be the first joint Council-Commission appointee, but the rejection of the EU's constitution and delays to the ratification of the Lisbon treaty, have thwarted that ambition.