If she wins the 2027 French presidential election, far-right leader Marine Le Pen plans to significantly reduce the powers and funding of the European Union’s diplomatic service. The plan would also affect the institution headed by the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas.
Four National Rally officials said the party aims to restrict the European External Action Service (EEAS), which coordinates the union’s foreign policy and diplomatic representation, Politico reports.
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Charles-Henri Gallois, an adviser to party leader Jordan Bardella, questioned Kallas’s role. He said her powers are limited and that her work duplicates what diplomats from member states do.
“In reality, her usefulness is very limited, and she duplicates the diplomacy of member states. Nobody recognizes her legitimacy, especially not the United States or China,” Gallois said.
Le Pen and Kallas also have sharply differing positions on the war in Ukraine. Kallas, Estonia’s former prime minister, has taken a hard line toward Russian President Vladimir Putin and strongly backed Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Le Pen, by contrast, is calling for an international peace conference aimed at ending the conflict. She has also said Europe no longer has the financial resources to continue supporting Kyiv in the same way.
National Rally MEP Jean-Paul Garraud also criticized Kallas’s rhetoric on Ukraine.
“Kallas has used very bellicose language about Ukraine. We support Ukraine, but if we spoke in the same way, we would end up in an open war with Russia,” he said.
Nationalist parties in France, Germany and Poland want more powers transferred from Brussels institutions to national governments, with foreign policy among the areas they aim to change.
Le Pen has directed her sharpest criticism at European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, but a possible change of power in France could also directly affect the institution headed by Kallas.
During a recent visit to Brussels, Le Pen said that if she took power, France would not allow the European Commission to have diplomatic, military or intelligence powers.
“France will no longer accept the Commission exercising diplomatic powers, let alone military or intelligence powers,” she said.
National Rally officials say the plan also envisages a significant scaling back of the role of the European External Action Service.
The initiative is expected to face opposition from pro-European parties, which see common diplomacy as an important tool for protecting Europe’s interests on the international stage.
Irish MEP Barry Andrews, a member of the Renew Europe group, warned that France could not take on the world’s major powers alone.
“Without Europe’s collective power, France has no chance of facing the United States or China alone,” Andrews said.
A spokesperson for the European External Action Service defended the institution, saying that EU diplomacy protects the interests of all member states, including France.
