The European Parliament has issued a call for the planned EU diplomatic service to be part of the Commission administrative structure and be funded from the Commission budget. This set-up would make the service subject to democratic oversight by the Parliament.

The European External Action Service (EEAS) is due to be established under the Lisbon Treaty. It will consist of officials from the Commission, Council and Member States and will assist the High Representative for external relations.  The Council is to decide how to organise the service on the basis of a proposal from the High Representative after consulting the Parliament and obtaining the consent of the Commission.

However, in a resolution adopted  by 424 votes to 94 with 30 abstentions, MEPs call on the Commission "to put its full weight" behind preserving the Community model in EU external relations.  They say "the EEAS must be incorporated into the Commission's administrative structure". However, some fields of current Commission external relations need not be assigned to the EEAS if a "specific model" is provided for them.

MEPs believe that Commission delegations in third countries, as well as Council liaison and EU Special Representative offices, should be merged to form "Union embassies", headed by EEAS staff which would be answerable to the High Representative, who will also be Vice-President of the Commission responsible for external relations.