Open Letter to Ms Kaja KALLAS
By convening a “townhall” only three days after the spectacular police raid at the EEAS premises, followed 24 hours later by the indictment and resignation of the two most senior former politico-administrative figures of our institution—accused of “procurement fraud, corruption, conflict of interest and breach of professional secrecy”— you raised among the staff under your authority expectations of a strong and mobilising speech.
However, the large number of disappointed reactions we have received to date compels us to regret that this opportunity was missed.
Indeed, the overwhelming majority of colleagues, present or connected from our delegation’s sites, had hoped for more than a fleeting and almost marginal reference at the very end of your address to a “scandal that rocked the house”.
Ten days after the shocking events, everyone was expecting from you a firm and authoritative statement, as well as the announcement of a resolute and ambitious action plan commensurate with the deep and unprecedented crisis of trust triggered by this judicial earthquake, which has struck European diplomacy at its very heart and birthplace.
Instead, your address was mostly perceived as a “year-end exercise”, with a conventional tone: a general satisfecit message, punctuated by the distribution of praise and formal encouragements to persevere in the face of adversity—in short, a striking and widely noted disconnect with the seriousness of the crisis experienced both individually and collectively by the members of staff serving under your authority.
From our perspective, other measures—both substantial and resolute—could have been announced, measures that would have given concrete substance to the political leadership you had displayed upon taking office a year ago, in a speech that had inspired great enthusiasm.
It is in a constructive spirit, and without claiming to give lessons in crisis management to the EEAS authorities, that R&D wishes to outline here some avenues for structural reform to be considered in order to restore, as far as possible, the deeply damaged image of European diplomacy. This process of rehabilitation will be long and difficult. It is owed not only to a deeply disoriented staff, but also to the EEAS’s partners and main stakeholders—Member States, the Commission and the Parliament—not to mention the European citizen, our ultimate principal, today dismayed by the scale of the scandal shaking our institutions.
First, respond to the questions, comments and deep concerns expressed by our colleagues
At your invitation, dozens—if not hundreds—of questions have been submitted in written. However, none received an answer during the townhall, officially “for lack of time”. R&D therefore invites you to make these questions accessible to all staff, together with the answers you would like to provide. This quick step is essential to begin dispelling the pervasive sense of bewilderment that has prevailed since the events.
Provide clear talking points for staff most exposed to criticism
In the same vein, precise and comprehensive talking points should be disseminated swiftly by our hierarchy to all staff, and in particular to those in delegations who manage programmes on sound public financial governance and the fight against corruption. Many of them have indeed already been subjected to jibes from certain interlocutors, ironically referring to “the pot calling the kettle black”.
Aligning these talking points with the Member States and the Commission is essential to ensure solidarity from Member State diplomats with their colleagues in the field and the effective cohesion of “Team Europe”.
Protect ALL whistle-blowers, whatever the kind of alert they trigger
R&D once again welcomes the decision announced by the EEAS to cooperate fully with the judicial authorities and competent investigative services in the ongoing case.
A whistleblowing policy, clearly a welcome development by R&D that has called for it for months, is a matter of sound and obvious politico-administrative hygiene. It pursues a fully legitimate preventive objective in the face of reported allegations of procedural abuse, conflict of interest and favouritism in the ongoing investigation.
In this same spirit of responsibility, R&D calls for this willingness to cooperate to prevail equally in other cases of professional serious misconduct, notably those involving allegations of harassment. As is the case at the Commission, and in compliance with the relevant Staff Regulations, the lifting of jurisdictional immunity should be the rule rather than the exception—at least where the plausibility of the allegations can be verified and where the requesting authorities are recognised for their reliability and respect for the rule of law.
These harassment cases, whose number has increased in recent years, are admittedly less visible than the politico-financial scandal currently weighing on us. Nevertheless, they are no less corrosive to staff morale and to the reputation of the European Union as an employer of reference worldwide.
Establish a strong Chief Confidential Counsellor under your direct authority
In this regard, R&D has recently suggested that the function of Chief Confidential Counsellor (CCC), currently combined with that of the Mediator, be significantly strengthened, made independent from the administration and placed directly under your authority, in line with current practice at the European Commission for instance.
The credibility of policies to combat harassment and protect whistle-blowers is at stake here. These are far better guaranteed by a function directly attached to the political level than by a mediation service that is hierarchically linked to the administration and whose resources—and staff trust—remain objectively limited at this stage.
Involve staff representatives in the sensitive administrative exercise to achieve better transparency
As transparency in administrative procedures is a cardinal principle to which you committed yourself during the Town hall, we invite you to put this commitment into practice by involving staff representatives more frequently and more broadly in the administrative exercises run by your services.
In this respect, we are still awaiting a good-faith social dialogue on the presence of staff representatives on selection panels for managers within the EEAS. This commitment, made 18 months ago by the Directorate-General for Human Resources to the representative trade unions, has reportedly not been honoured due to the “undisputed opposition” of the then Secretary-General, Stefano Sannino.
Ensure all necessary resources and authority are provided to our administrative services to accomplish their difficult tasks
The facts under investigation by the police, OLAF and the European Public Prosecutor concern public procurement procedures. It thus appears indispensable to immediately assess and adjust the resources available to EEAS staff responsible for these procurement files. This is all the more urgent as, both at headquarters and in delegations, teams responsible for public procurement and other financial procedures consider themselves understaffed and sometime lacking in expertise. This shortage of resources and experience has persisted for many years, even as a handful of staff are required to manage an ever-growing volume, diversity and complexity of procurement procedures and contracts.
More broadly, the EEAS administrative services responsible for budgetary implementation are not only insufficiently sized in relation to the scale of their mission, but are also often socially and professionally undervalued, according to the EEAS hierarchy itself. Their role, which we consider as essential to the proper functioning of European diplomacy, is nevertheless still perceived as secondary; an assignment to these services is often regarded as a form of side-lining. It is therefore even more urgent to grant these colleagues and services the resources, skills, independence, authority—and professional recognition—necessary for the proper fulfilment of their delicate mission.
The same concern is widely shared in our delegations, where contract agents and local staff systematically fear retaliation if they express doubts regarding the financial commitment decisions of their superiors.
R&D wishes to emphasise that this deep-seated and pervasive fear of a hierarchy perceived (and sometimes perceiving itself) as all-powerful is profoundly rooted among a large part of EEAS staff, particularly among the most precarious and vulnerable of our colleagues.
This noxious atmosphere must change and we do believe you – and only you – have the power to make it happen.
Consider the dramatic backdrop : budgetary austerity and outright dismissals
Finally, R&D cannot but bitterly observe that the financial scandal of the European Diplomatic Academy is unfolding against the backdrop of a full-scale restructuring of the delegation network.
While we are sincerely grateful to you for having done everything possible to ‘limit the damage’ to both the EEAS and its staff foreseen in the initial “plan” secretly concocted a year ago in total opacity and calling for hundreds of dismissals of our colleagues, still the first stage of this restructuring was marked by the announcement of the imminent dismissal of 27 local agents in our Balkan delegations.
Everyone understands this is merely the prelude to a much more extensive social plan, euphemistically labelled as “modernisation” and wrapped in typical incantatory managerial jargon— “agility”, “flexibility” and “adaptation to a hyper-volatile geopolitical context” etc.—a clear political plan aiming at reducing the actual influence of the EEAS while being presented as only driven by budgetary constraints.
Conclusion (provisional)
For R&D, a firm reassertion of political control over the immediate future of the EEAS now appears as indispensable as it is inevitable.
It should be noted that the strengthening of administrative capacities mentioned above cannot be considered excessive if one anticipates the agenda of the forthcoming budgetary discharge the EEAS and you will face before the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets—an exercise that was already acrobatic in 2024, and which promises to be even more perilous in light of the file of the European Diplomatic Academy, in which the European Parliament has invested significant funds in recent years…
Convinced that the moment has never been more serious for our institution, and in the hope that reading this letter will have rekindled your determination to proceed without delay to the genuine paradigm shift that the situation demands of us all today, R&D remains at your disposal, as well as that of your services, to work towards ever greater integrity and transparency, in the interest of our colleagues and of the institution you lead—so dear to our hearts.
Sincerely yours, Madam High Representative,
Cristiano SEBASTIANI, Chair R&D Commission
Oren WOLFF, General Delegate R&D EEAS
Annex:
Our last note for the attention of Mr Piotr Serafin, Commissioner for Budget, anti-Fraud and Public Administration: EEAS-gate – Recent case concerning the establishment of the Academy for European Diplomats at the College of Europe in Bruges