Is Britain trying to take over EU foreign policy?

Posted By Joshua Keating Tuesday, March 2, 2010 - 1:10 PM Share

Yet another Catherine Ashton controversy:

A confidential German foreign ministry document analysing the creation of the EU's new diplomatic service, seen by the Guardian, has concluded that Britain has grabbed an "excessive" and "over-proportionate" role.

Berlin and Paris are anxious that they are losing the battle to win key positions in the new service which is to be the main vehicle for projecting European power globally under the Lisbon Treaty.

Brussels is currently embroiled in tense negotiations to establish its first worldwide diplomatic corps and integrated foreign policy apparatus, known as the European External Action Service (EEAS). It is to be led by Lady Ashton, the EU's new high representative for foreign and security policy.

"Excessive GB participation [in the EEAS] is evident," says the German document. "Over-proportionate GB influence on the establishment [of the EEAS] and staffing is to be avoided."

Ashton's beein taking an extraordinary amount of heat since taking over and it's not quite, some of which probably has less to do with her than with the sisyphean job she's been given to do as the EU's first High Representative. As one German MEP put it: "Baroness Ashton has been given an absolutely impossible task."

Whether or not all the criticism is far, Ashton doesn't seem to be all that intersted in counteracting it. She's not quoted in the Guardian story or in much of the coverage surroudding her various controversies. It may be time for the Baroness to go on the offensive.

JOHN THYS/AFP/Getty Images

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1:46 PM ET

March 2, 2010

Don't Worry, Lady Ashton Will Be Gone Before Too Long

The problem is that Lady Ashton is neither particularly bright nor qualified for the job that she now holds; compared to Javier Solana she's a neophyte.

Baroness Ashton of Upholland (actually her peerage was obtained through the intervention of Tony Blair; she is of a working class background) has made one mistake after the other. Just last week she infuriated her NATO colleagues by being a "no show" at an important meeting so she could attend the inauguration of the new Ukrainian President.

In short order it’s not just going to be Paris and Berlin that are unhappy with the Baroness, it's going to be Whitehall as well. In a few months David Cameron will be the new Prime Minister of Great Britain and I wonder how he's going to react to having a Labor Party "Pol" serving as Europe's chief foreign policy spokesperson.

The fact is that Baroness Ashton is simply too far too the left for today's Europe. Conservatives control the governments of France, Germany and soon Great Britain. The Poles, Czechs, Hungarians and Baltic nations have governments who hold views far to the right of those of the Baroness. Even the Danes have taken decisive steps towards the right and it seems likely that Sweden will follow in time.

Baroness Ashton is out of step with most of Europe.

Her days in her new position are numbered.

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