Mporel outburst on EU diplomats: “You are slow, lazy, useless and biased” – Newsbomb – News

The EU’s foreign policy chief says diplomats are slow, inefficient and support their countries. In a rare outburst, Josep Borrell criticized staff for not “seeing” the invasion of Ukraine and noted that sometimes he learns more by “reading newspapers”

Borrell accused his top diplomats that they are slow, inefficient and support the countries they work in, also criticizing them for not foreseeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“This is not a time when we will send flowers to all of you saying you are beautiful, you work very well and we are very happy,” Borel, Spain’s former foreign minister, told ambassadors working for the EU’s external action agency.

Borel, who has a reputation for speaking out of his teeth, also noted that the EU’s diplomatic network is less informative than newspapers. “Sometimes, I knew more about what was going on somewhere by reading the papers than by reading your reports,” he said.

“I should be the best informed person in the world”, Borel complained, instructing them to be more reactive to the unfolding crises. “Behave as you would if you were an embassy: send a telegram, an e-mail, quickly. Act quickly, please, react.”

The EU, he said, failed to foresee that Russia would attack Ukraine, leaving her to rely on US warnings, notably a phone call from US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken two days before the invasion. “I have to admit that here in Brussels, the Americans were telling us ‘they’re going to attack, they’re going to attack’, and we were quite reluctant to believe it.”

As his audience sat in silence, Borrell accused his diplomats of lacking empathy and pandering to their counterparts in their host countries. “We believe we know best what is in the best interests of others. We underestimate the role of emotions and the persistent appeal of identity politics.”

One person in the room said some were offended by his comments, while others found them intentional, adding: “I think it was generally received positively, because he spoke to the point.” The comments come amid growing concern among top EU officials that the EU’s campaign for alternatives to Russian natural gas has alienated African countries by raising prices.

Echoing a long-standing concern, Borrell said that EU loses ‘battle of impressions’ to Russia and China; which have developed “troll farms” to amplify their messages around the world. “This is a battle we’re not winning, because we’re not fighting hard enough,” he said, criticizing EU diplomats who don’t retweet his blog posts or tweets.

“I’m still amazed that, in some delegations, they don’t seem to be paying enough attention to our communication and not tweeting and retweeting the messages we convey from the center. You must be a network that repeats, broadcasts, persists».

Borrell, who once described the monthly meetings of EU foreign ministers as “more of a valley of tears than a decision-making center”has never held back in his criticism of what he sees as the EU’s foreign policy shortcomings. It remains unusual, however, for a senior European official to unleash such strong criticism of his own staff.