SOLID, DECENT – BUT UNINSPIRED: CATHERINE ASHTON MAKES EU DEBUT
Ian Traynor in Brussels
guardian.co.uk
Monday 11 January 2010 19.32 GMT
First high representative shrugs off MEPs’ grilling with quiet
Baroness Ashton allowed few sparks to fly during her three
hour-grilling from MEPs. Photograph: Rex Features
Europe opened a new year and a new era today: a new commission,
a new treaty, a new rule book – and a new baroness.
Lady Ashton, veteran of UK quangos and international trade talks, went
into the chamber in Brussels to show the EU she has what it takes to
be the face and voice of European foreign policy, and emerged three
hours later unscathed and victorious.
The grilling ranged from Eritrea to Hillary Clinton, from her youthful
zeal as a ban-the-bomber to her mature views on making the world a
better place. But nothing could faze her.
As Europe’s new top diplomat, Ashton acquitted herself extremely
diplomatically. Britain’s representative on the new 27-strong
commission caused minimum offence. Equally, she inspired minimum
enthusiasm.
"I disappointed some of you a little today, maybe a lot today," she
noted with the self-deprecation that comes naturally to the Labour peer
but which is also being honed as a political and negotiating tactic.
In the end, said Elmar Brok, the long-serving German Christian
Democrat, "this is the basis for further co-operation, but no reason
for enthusiasm".
Ashton went to room Jan 4Q2 in the shiny. sprawling European parliament
in Brussels to kick off the five-year season in EU politics at the
democratic high point of a system routinely excoriated for its lack of
accountability. She was the first of 26 new commissioners-designate to
be put through a three-hour, US Senate-style hearing by MEPs. Under
the new regime created by the Lisbon treaty, the parliament is more
powerful. And don’t those MEPs know it.
Ashton stroked and cuddled them: "You are democratically elected and
I am not. I absolutely respect that … I hope you’ll always find my
door open."
The surprise choice to be the EU’s first high representative for
foreign and security policy – she was shocked when Gordon Brown was
out-manoeuvred into nominating her for the job last month – Ashton
has spent the holiday season boning up on the world’s trouble spots
and seeking to master the detail of everything from the clans of
Nagorno-Karabakh to the tribes of Yemen.
At times today, the questioning appeared to be a conversation among
European nobles, despite Ashton’s humble Lancastrian roots. A German
count told a British baroness he was sorry about her apparent lack
of ambition, while a British lord accused her of being on the wrong
side of history, the EU’s very own Edith Piaf (Je ne regrette rien).
The only sparks to fly in the entire three hours were a very British
affair, with the chaps from the Conservative caucus and Ukip invoking
Ashton’s CND days in the 1970s to tar her as a crypto-communist and
KGB stooge.
If Ashton was bland and competent most of the time, the personal
attacks brought out the best in her, winning her a rare round of
applause.
"I am not a member of CND and have not been for 28 or 29 years,"
she told Charles Tannock, the Tory MEP, who demanded a straight yes
or no answer to whether she remained a unilateral disarmer. "I do
not believe that strategy is now appropriate."
Strategy loomed large in Ashton’s performance. There was the "coherent
strategy", the "strategic framework", the "strategic relationship".
If an issue was not strategic, it was "critical", "hugely important",
"very significant", "very challenging". From the Middle East to the
White House, from Iran to Russia, from China to Afghanistan, however,
there was no lucid presentation of priority, no clue of what she
wanted, little sign of whether she saw her role as master or servant.
One MEP told Ashton the parliament did not want her to be "an
ambassador for 27 foreign ministers. What are your criteria? What
are your ambitions? That’s what we’re still waiting for."
Another told her: "We want more for you than you want for yourself."
Ashton failed to rise to the occasion. She replied that her paramount
aims were the promotion of security and stability in their various
senses.
She did not dazzle the MEPs with brilliance, rhetoric, or insights.
She left no hostages to fortune by revealing her personal politics.
She was decent, competent, conciliatory and solid.
If Jose Manuel Barroso’s second commission falls, it will not be
because of Baroness Ashton of Upholland.
"When I talk about quiet diplomacy, this does not necessarily mean
that I myself am very quiet," she said. "My interest is in outcomes.
Sometimes loudness doesn’t work."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress