After five years in his post, it is likely that only two weeks remain for 77-year-old Borrell before the next EU Commission is expected to take office from December 1.
The Spaniard was long considered too yielding and naive towards Russia and was heavily criticized for a notorious meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow in 2021.
Now he is critical of how the rest of the EU has acted.
Russia will not stop waging war just because we are thinking about it. All decisions to help Ukraine have taken too long, says Borrell in connection with Monday's meeting with EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
"Does not want to negotiate"
The phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President-elect Donald Trump are said to have had recently do not impress him much.
Putin's response to all attempts to talk or negotiate is to launch the toughest attacks on civilian infrastructure in months. He does not want to negotiate, but on the contrary, says Borrell.
The call going forward is for EU countries to quickly unite in their decisions.
You cannot be a geopolitical power if you take days, weeks, months to act, says the foreign policy chief.
Decisions blocked
Borrell had long hoped that EU foreign ministers would reward him with a little extra unity at his last meeting. But that did not happen.
Hungary is still blocking decisions on arms support to Ukraine, while primarily the Czech Republic is stopping a proposal from Borrell to break off the political dialogue with Israel.
The outgoing foreign policy chief is clearly disappointed over the EU countries' inability to put more pressure on Israel regarding the war in Gaza.
The most common age among the dead in the war is five years old. This is a war against children, says Borrell.
After the foreign ministers' meeting, he is now preparing for his final defense ministers' meeting on Tuesday.
The EU's foreign policy chief – formally "the Union's High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy" – leads and coordinates EU foreign policy and chairs all foreign and defense ministers' meetings in the EU. The foreign policy chief is also simultaneously Vice President of the EU Commission.
Since the post was introduced with the Lisbon Treaty, it has been held by British Catherine Ashton (2010-14), Italian Federica Mogherini (2014-19), and Spanish Josep Borrell (from 2019).
The next foreign policy chief is expected to be Estonian Kaja Kallas, who will take office from December 1, provided the next EU Commission is approved by the EU Parliament beforehand.
