Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, is prepared to offer concessions on MEPs’ demands for greater political accountability of the EU’s diplomatic service in order to win their backing for her plans, according to a senior official. 

The concessions include sending European Commissioners or member states’ foreign ministers to parliamentary hearings rather than the three senior civil servants who will lead the service. The official said that there had been “some indication” from MEPs that this might meet their concerns on political accountability.

Ashton is to meet the two MEPs most closely involved with the European External Action Service (EEAS) – Guy Verhofstadt, a Belgian Liberal MEP, and Elmar Brok, a German centre-right MEP – on 4 June for a second round of negotiations. A first round on 10 May was inconclusive.

If a compromise is found with MEPs, Ashton intends to submit the main proposal on the EEAS to a summit of EU leaders on 17 June. “If we have the basic regulation [on launching the EEAS], we can at least start the recruitment procedure and save two to three months,” the official said. Ashton hopes that all elements required for the EEAS to begin its work will be in place before the end of the year.

In addition to the decision to launch the service, which does not require the Parliament’s formal approval, MEPs will have to approve changes to staff and financial regulations. The Commission plans to propose changes to staff regulations on 9 June, but they are unlikely to be debated by the Parliament before the summer break. MEPs could, however, approve changes to the financial regulations in July.

The official said that because MEPs had the power to reject the staff and financial regulations, they should be debated separately from the main decision. “We do not see why it is necessary to keep these texts as a package,” he said.