EEAS takes over Commission delegations

GENEVA

Where other Commission delegations have been transformed into EU embassies, the representation in Geneva is taking a different course. Its main task until the Lisbon treaty had been to represent the European Commission – which has exclusive authority over trade deals – at the World Trade Organization (WTO). After the Commission delegation was upgraded to an EU delegation, it became clear that the WTO talks required a senior official with the rank of ambassador to act as the Commission's chief negotiator. The delegation has been split: a ‘normal' delegation, to be staffed primarily by EEAS officials, which represents all of the EU at the United Nations in Geneva, and a delegation dealing exclusively with trade matters that is accountable to the Commission. The new arrangement has been endorsed by the college of European commissioners.