The European Union’s External Action Service (EEAS), which serves as the EU’s foreign ministry, has reportedly been forced to implement “severe austerity measures” after exceeding its spending limits.
According to the Financial Times, EU diplomats have been instructed to cancel travel plans and events after significantly overspending their budget this year. The EEAS has been ordered to cut €43 million ($46.5 million), or nearly 5% of its planned budget, after exceeding agreed spending limits.
Sources familiar with the matter have said the diplomatic service must adapt to “severe austerity measures” and will have to sell property to balance its books. They added that the financial crunch will worsen next year and make it “impossible” for the EU to maintain its current diplomatic presence in regions such as Africa and Latin America.
The EEAS operates a network of over 140 overseas delegations and offices that promote EU interests worldwide.
The report alleges that essential repairs and maintenance in many of the bloc’s delegations are impossible, raising serious security concerns.
The EEAS is primarily funded through the EU budget, which is financed by individual EU countries in proportion to their gross national income. Customs duties on imports from outside the EU also contribute to its financing.
An EEAS spokesperson told the FT that the organization had cut “all the expenditure we possibly could” and had halved the budgets of overseas offices “despite the crippling effects on our global outreach.”
Another official stated that the bloc’s diplomatic service is in “dire straits” financially, adding that “the world needs more diplomacy, not less.”
Meanwhile, the EU and its member states have provided or committed over €143 billion ($154.6 billion) to Ukraine between February 2022 and March 2024, according to European Council data.
The bloc has also imposed a ban on imports of various goods from Russia, including oil and gas, as part of an unprecedented sanctions campaign against Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine.
“The war in Europe [and] increasing instability in our neighborhood and globally” are the main challenges facing European foreign policy, the bloc’s next foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said last month.
The former Estonian prime minister, known for her hardline anti-Russian stance, is set to succeed Josep Borrell as the head of the EEAS in the autumn.