November 23, 2009. Copyright 2009, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Catherine Ashton: New EU foreign minister will pursue "quiet diplomacy"
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, November 23, Graphic News:  Anyone who is tempted to envy Catherine Ashton for her meteoric rise to become the new de facto EU foreign minister won't stay green-eyed for long: the urgent tasks piling up in her in-tray would test even the most experienced foreign hand. She must take immediate action on the worsening crisis in Ukraine, and inherits problematic negotiations with Iran and Afghanistan.

At the same time, Ashton will take over the emerging EU global diplomatic service and must keep order among EU foreign ministers. As if being appointed the EU's first foreign high representative were not enough, she also becomes effective vice president of the Commission. However, while Ashton is not the only one to express surprise at her appointment, neither is she quite alone in believing that she is up to what is an extremely taxing job.

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown and EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso have both praised Ashton in her role as EU trade commissioner, where she led tough negotiations with China and the United States. Her supporters point to this experience of speaking on behalf of Europe on trade affairs to counter criticism that her foreign policy experience is virtually nil. She has never held elected office and is little known even in Britain.

Born in Upholland in Lancashire in 1956, Ashton studied economics and worked for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Hertfordshire health authority before receiving a Labour life peerage in 1999. In 2007 she joined Brown's first cabinet, and as Leader of the House of Lords she won praise for steering the contentious Lisbon Treaty through the upper house.

Ashton, who is known as a fast-talking dealmaker whose affable exterior conceals a steely determination, has said she will pursue her style of "quiet diplomacy" when she takes over the foreign role on December 1, three days before she is plunged into an EU-Ukraine summit. Even if, as some claim, she only got her latest job by default, it's not yet clear whether this supports claims that "Cathy's just got lucky".
/ENDS