The European Parliament staffers will work at the EU delegation in Jakarta, the headquarters of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the headquarters of the African Union, in Addis Ababa, as well as the EU delegation to the United Nations in New York City.
By Maïa De La Baume (POLITICO)
The European Parliament is planning a bigger footprint around the world.
Senior members of the assembly agreed at a closed-door meeting this week to approve plans to send permanent staff to Indonesia, Ethiopia and New York, two Parliament officials told POLITICO.
The Parliament staffers will work at the European Union (EU) delegation in Jakarta, the headquarters of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (also in Jakarta), the headquarters of the African Union, in Addis Ababa, as well as the EU delegation to the United Nations in New York.
The Parliament also discussed sending staff to Brazil and India, and recently appointed an official to head the Parliament’s office in London ahead of its scheduled departure from the EU on March 29.
The move “would entail limited additional costs,” the note said, and the “number of permanent staff would vary from 2 to 4.”
The decision to send staff beyond EU borders is part of a plan by Klaus Welle, the assembly’s secretary-general, to “strengthen Parliament’s activity and diplomatic presence in the world,” according to an internal note written by Welle and obtained by POLITICO.
But the decision angered some in the Parliament, which has already made significant investments in real estate across Europe.
“The Parliament has no reason to send staff to Jakarta and Addis Ababa because it has no specific partnership with these international organizations,” said a senior Parliament official. “These will again be seen as tourist offices paid for by taxpayers.”
The European Union is already represented in some 140 delegations and offices around the world, thanks to the European External Action Service.
Staffers from the Parliament have “broad knowledge of parliamentary procedures and parliamentary diplomacy,” Welle’s note said, and could “complement the activities of the Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) in engaging the parliamentary dimension of regional bodies.”
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